Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha - Book 5: Chapter 0: Prologue: Departing in the Night of Christmas

I prohibit you from using 「War」to bring your message across.

Do not use nice words to justify every single person’s suffering.

In this world, there is a place known as the 「Demon Realm」.

From the God Tribe, that is the place where exiles were dimensionally banished to.

They vowed revenge against those who banished them from the paradise, the God Tribe, and had turned themselves into a race relatively similar to the sacred God Tribe.

In other words, The Demon Race.

Thereafter — when the clash of the two races in the「First Great Demon-God War」ended, both sides went into long-term hibernation and recuperation.

After waking from the hibernation, the God Tribe created life forms known as 「Humans」and bestowed power and blessings to suitable Humans — and thus groups of Humans able to fight against the Demon race was born.

The groups of Humans then fought a war against the Demon race who once again attempted to invade the God Realm. Those Humans possessed power enough to maintain the peace within the Human Realm, and as time passed by, they became known as — The Hero Tribe. However–

…No one knows if this story is really true.

Wrapped up within a towel having just washed herself, Mio returned to her room and closed the door, and thought.

What she was doubting wasn’t the origins of the Hero Tribe, but the origins of the God and Demon Realms belonging to the Gods and Demons respectively.

Even though Mio was just about to return to the Demon Realm, she was very different from Maria who had grown up within the Demon Realm, and the ones from the Hero Tribe like Basara. Mio had spent majority of her life in the Human Realm living as a normal Human.

Even though Mio had personally experienced the existence and power of the psionic ^[1], she was just an unqualified rookie. Thus, there were still many things that she was still unable to believe.

…However,

Who knows? — The traditions and cultures of words from God and religious traditions might not all be lies. Even if topics like the Origin of the Universe and the Earth, or Human Evolution managed to get scientific proof, no one could really prove if there is really such a thing.

Naruse Mio knew very well that there are still some things that even science still cannot prove.

Demon race, Heroes, Magic, etc. are all confirmed to exist.

–And in the night of the 25th of December, today, they will make a long-distance trip.

With Maria’s sister Lucia as the guide, they will advance towards another land — the Demon Realm.

Part of the Moderates Faction just like Maria, Lucia had come to the Toujou Residence to deliver the invitation from the Demon Realm on the night of the sports festival…about a month ago.

It has been said that with the battle against the Current Demon Lord Faction looming over them, individuals saying to extract Wilbert’s power inherited by Mio, as well as to increase protection around her have already began appearing. Also, there were opinions to crown Mio as the New Demon Lord as well as the opposition to it, and nothing conclusive has been reached. Thus, they needed to hear about Mio’s current opinions.

The reason they all had been fighting to this day was to preserve their normal daily life. If this trip to the Demon Realm is the only way to do it, they will not hesitate at all, since the enemy’s leader is the Current Demon Lord after all.

But having said that, Mio and the rest also have their own lives to live — they need to go to school. Thus, Basara strongly expressed opposition to taking a long absence from school, skipping their tests and neglecting their school life, and postponed the date to the end of the second trimester.

“….Oh, shit.”

Mio sat on the chair before the dressing table, and began to blow-dry her hair.

The current time is a little past eleven in the night. In another hour, Maria’s sister Lucia will be coming over to fetch them; Maria, Yuki, as well as Kurumi were all probably making their last preparations — except for Basara.

After the closing ceremony of the sports festival, Basara had went a different way to another place, different from them who had went straight home. I think he had went with the student council to celebrate. ^[2]

–As for the celebration for the Organising Committee, it had already happened long ago.

As the headcount for this year’s organising committee was nearly doubled from last year, adding in that the third years who aren’t supposed to show up, the preparations definitely entailed many problems; a tornado also suddenly happened temporarily on that day, damaging some of the equipment. Fortunately, they managed to overcome the many different difficult hurdles, and after successfully bringing the Sports Festival to an end, the organising committee once again gathered in the AV room ^[3] and submitted the reports from the various departments, and the committee was then dissolved. They all then had a small celebration with the delicacies and drinks prepared by the school; Mio, Yuki, and Basara had taken part, and Aikawa Shiho and Sakaki Chika was part of it too.

…However.

The student council members who handles almost every matter in the school were different from the organising committee members who could return to their normal school life after unloading that title. They have to review the reports from all the departments, checking for any errors and problems in the preparations and operations within the sports festival, pick out things to improve on and compile them into the activity records for next year. Thus, the student council were busy with the follow-up work all the way to the last day of the second trimester — 25th of December. And in accordance with tradition, they will have a celebration on that night.

Responsible for providing aid to the organising committee as a student council member, Basara was specially invited to join the celebration. While Mio and the other girls would very much like to have dinner with Basara before heading to the Demon Realm, they do not want to obstruct Basara’s personal relations with others. Furthermore–

–He had already spent the whole Christmas Eve with us already.

Maria exhibited her culinary skills with Mio as her helper, and focused on roasting a whole turkey and making a cake at home. Basara ate the food with much gusto, and everyone had much fun. But — they had played a game Maria had prepared in advance, causing all the girls to end up wearing sexy female Santa Claus outfits, and they all were done in once by Basara. ^[4]

“T-There isn’t anything weird with this, right? After all, this is a Santa Claus outfit…”

Last night was the night which had the most number of males and females in bed together, thus the highest number of climaxes, thus also known as the National Spend-The-Night-Together Night. Under these conditions, for Mio and the rest seemed much more wholesome, being unable run to the home plate over fears of losing the powers they had. ^[5]

If any nit-picking were to be done, it would probably be those games Maria liked to play – those free-for-all activities rarely ever happens in real life.

…Anyway, we must buy next year’s Christmas cake from a cake shop.

If they were to make one themselves, Maria might become paranoid again and prepare a lot of fresh milk and fruits in advance, and finally decorate them to become fine cuisine. ^[6] Speaking of which—

…The Demon Realm, huh…

Just what exactly will that place be like? Other than Maria who had grown up there, even Basara, Yuki, and Kurumi had never been there before.

The Hero Tribe had only stepped into the Demon Realm once, but that was before they were born – the Great War that had only gotten more intense as time passed. Back then, the [God of War] Toujou Jin and the other elite warriors that caused Demons to become pale with the mere mention of their name had invaded fairly deep into the realm – but such large-scale confrontations had never happened again within these fifteen years that followed. In order to not unnecessarily fan the flames created by the war, Heroes were basically banned from entering the Demon Realm.

Of course, as this was Mio’s first time going to the Demon Realm, she had done some exercise to calm her nerves and refresh herself. Because of that, Maria had invited Mio to be the first to use the bath after she had drawn it, but–

“Ah…”

Choosing to wait until she was the last one was indeed the right decision. Mio was able to leisurely soak within the water, letting the water warm up her body thoroughly. She then pulled open a drawer from within the low cabinet, and chose a set with suitable colours and patterns from the neatly folded sets of underwear, and began undoing the knot on her bathrobe.

Her large soft breasts were the first to emerge, followed by the rest of her body. Hanging the bathrobe over the chair’s backrest, she put her two legs into the holes of the panties, and pulled it up.

When the panties hugged her butt tightly, her index fingers moved from her back to the front into the gap between her two legs, and moved up and down a few times after hooking the material, adjusting its grip; bending forward after picking up the bra that was a set together with the panties, she skillfully put the clasp together after putting her breasts within the bra.

Straightening up, Mio’s hands then strongly pulled the clasp downwards, and after adjusting the side straps, she was done with putting on her underwear. After checking herself in the vertical mirror—

“Will this be too provocative…? But I don’t have any choice.”

She sighed. Mio’s upper body was originally already breathtaking, but its size has been increasing ever since Basara began subjugating her. Finding anything cute and nice that she could fit into was already beginning to become a problem, and what she had left that could fit are either too old-fashioned or lingerie that were European Imports. In order for the deepening of their relationship and the occasional lifting of the aphrodisiac curse to increase their battle potential, Mio often needed to undress before Basara.

Since Basara would be watching, Mio of course wanted to present herself at her very best. This was a normal teenage girl’s feelings.

“In the end, I am still being led on by Maria. This must be something…”

Recently, Mio would always agree to anything the moment she hears [Basara will definitely like that].

Now that Kurumi had also moved into the house together with Yuki, the two of them along with Mio would occasionally be subjugated by Basara himself — speaking of which, those were all situations Maria created herself — in those times, the Nonaka sisters were wearing those cute lingerie. To not lose to them, Mio could only make her advances in her own ways.

However — other than Mio and Yuki who had done the Master-Servant contract with Basara and the ero-loving succubus Maria, there wasn’t any need for Basara to be subjugating Kurumi, who had no duty to be accompanying them–

…Kurumi doesn’t seem to hate Basara a lot recently.

Of course, Kurumi had put up resistance when her embarrassment kicks in, but had indulged in Basara’s punishment in the end, and Mio knew the reason for that all too well — obviously, Kurumi held feelings for Basara but had been hiding it. Although she was in no position to be criticizing others, Mio was someone who couldn’t be frank with herself, so she can understand what Nonaka Kurumi liked about Basara so much.

Adding on that after the incident with Zolgear — Maria also held feelings for Basara.

Only just feelings — it can’t be counted as love for now, more like purely enjoying pushing the rest into the pit of fire at fulfilling her basic instincts as a succubus. Perhaps it was for that very reason that Maria–

…had chosen to grab onto Kurumi.

Maria seemed to be playing around with Kurumi due to her fascination with her. While Mio and the rest went to school, those two were basically staying together. For those two to interact with each other was something normal, and them becoming good friends wasn’t something bad.

While those two would also go out to together, they’ve always refused to reveal where they had went. These days, Kurumi and Maria would always take a bath together, and from the gasps that came from the bathroom, Kurumi had probably already become Maria’s plaything already. But even then Yuki as the older sister remained quiet; Yuki was probably happy that Kurumi had made a close friend around her age.

Then again — the Nonaka sisters’ relationship seemed to have worsened in the past five years. Thus, whenever Maria had made Kurumi cry, Yuki felt like an older sister from being able to placate her cute little sister, which instead made her happy.

「…The overwhelming force of the Nonaka sister’s relationship gives me a headache.」

To Mio, she would be happy as long as Maria was happy — she only just hopes that Maria wouldn’t make other people do ‘’those’’ things every once in a while. As Mio was thinking about these things–

『—I’m back.』

Basara’s voice suddenly came from downstairs. Crap, Mio had originally wanted to finish changing and wait for him to return together with the others.

Mio then hurriedly put on the uniform that was hanging on the wall. She had discussed what she should wear when going to the Demon Realm with Basara and Yuki, and they all had decided to wear their uniform. A uniform would be the easiest to make the other parties know what position they have in this Realm and what kind of life they are living.

Speaking of which, there is still some time before the agreed time – midnight; while worrying that Basara might be taking a bath too and also scolding herself for putting the cart before the horse by spending so much effort on her underwear yet spending so little effort on her outer appearances, Mio began to leisurely groom herself despite her nervousness.

After putting on high knee socks and tying her hair into ribbons on both sides of her head, Mio was done dressing up. Spinning around once in front of the mirror, she touched up on the little details of her appearance. After taking in three deep breaths, Mio was also mentally prepared.

Leaving the room, Mio turned off the lights and closed the door. Before her was the scene she was already long used to seeing–

“………………”

Naruse Mio carved the image before her eyes deep into her mind, and hoped to never forget it.

She must return to this place, becoming lost is not an option — and vowed in her heart at the same time.

From the night Lucia visited the Toujou Residences bringing the news from the Demon Realm, Mio already had plenty of time to think about many things and mentally prepare herself.

— Hailed as the strongest in history, the power of the previous Demon Lord Wilbert.

Even if she gave up her revenge on Zolgear, Mio couldn’t possibly leave behind her current situation so long as she possessed her father’s power.

That’s why — Mio and the rest had decided to visit the Demon Realm.

…However,

That does not mean that she felt no anxiety and fear at all.

The Moderates Faction and the Current Demon Lord Faction — the two major forces within the Demon Realm had been fighting each other over the power sufficient to control every corner of the Demon Realm. Within this situation, they had to advance to the Demon Realm.

Eighty percent of the people waiting for her there had been through unimaginable trials and suffering.

— As the sole child of the previous Demon Lord, perhaps this was her own fate.

Yet Basara and the others — were all dragged into this because of her own choices and circumstances.

That’s why, Mio can’t show them any signs of wanting to give up before they departed.

They had said this to Mio before: If she didn’t want to go, there isn’t a need to force herself.

But in the end, Mio still chose to voluntarily take the risk.

She had to end everything. Her father’s powers that she had inherited which brings about threats to her life — Mio had to put an end to it all before their situation becomes even worse. That’s why–

“…I’ll be back soon.”

Naruse Mio whispered to the empty room, turned off the lights, and closed the door.

With this, she will not turn back, and never stop.

Moving forward with her all, Mio slowly walked down the stairs.

1. relating to or denoting the practical use of psychic powers or paranormal phenomena
2. The story of the celebration on Basara’s side is in Volume 6 Chapter 4
3. Audio-Visual Room
4. A phrase used as a running gag in the series is used here. [Maria does something -> something happens -> curse activates -> Basara subjugates them]
5. (Note:TLer here is Chinese) This part contains many Chinese sexual puns, which are almost impossible for me to fit into here. [Spending the night together] and [In the bed together] -> refers to having the sexual activity (sex) in the bed. [Run to home plate] also refers to the aforementioned sexual activity
6. Body food. Preparing the food to be consumed on a person’s body