The compass pointed unwaveringly in one direction. Pastel leaned against the table to examine the compass.
“What is this, what is this?”
—What is this, what is this?
The Fairy sitting next to the compass tilted her head. Then, gasping in surprise, she shouted her guess.
—Your mother’s keepsake, perhaps?!
Whoa.
“What did you say?! Does that mean I’m a kid who forgets my mom’s keepsakes?!”
Shock.
Well, since it wasn’t true, Pastel decided to ignore it.
Her expression grew serious. She tapped the compass with her finger. If it’s a compass, it must be for navigation or treasure hunting.
“I think this is a really important item! First, we should bestow it with the special title of Compass Friend!”
The Fairy tilted her head.
—If it’s an important item, wouldn’t it have originally been a friend? Treating a compass, which was a friend, like a stranger seems a bit sad.
Whoa.
“What if it gets sad?”
Forgetting friends would disqualify her from being popular.
—I don’t know! Fairies don’t call objects friends even if they’re nice.
“That’s ridiculous.”
Pastel grunted.
Then she realized that the compass had a hinge and that it actually resembled a lid.
Carefully, she opened the lid attached to the compass. A jewelry box filled with several gems was revealed.
So, the compass was a jewelry box after all~.
Whoa.
—Wait a minute…!
The Fairy’s eyes widened.
“Ah! I remember!”
Pastel slammed her hands on the table and jumped up.
“It is indeed a keepsake!”
But instead of her mother, it belonged to the Former Demon King.
The compass was intended for finding the ruins left by the former Demon King and the gems in the box contained various powers of the Demon King!
Eating gem gems might strengthen the body, so this was incredibly important.
The Demon King had kindly arranged for them to find his inheritance hidden all over the place, but the next Demon King had been too busy making money to even remember them!
I’m sorryyy!
But since she was making good money, it probably wouldn’t matter!
Wouldn’t a wealthy chairman be better than a poor Demon King?
Apologies to the single succession-bound Demon King, but if that were the case, they should have left behind treasures as their inheritance, she wanted to say timidly.
—Where did you find this?! This is the self-styled items of the Demon King!
The Fairy trembled with a shocked expression.
Whoa.
That was an unusual reaction.
“Fairy, do you know what this is?”
—Of course, I do!
The Fairy became half angry but then realized she was getting excited and slapped her cheeks to calm down.
Taking a deep breath, she began articulating step by step, as if to avoid any slip of the tongue.
—This is the self-proclaimed item of the Demon King! Containing the power of the Fairy Queen! You’re really a partner! To have resolved one of the most unreasonable desires of the Fairy World, wow!
“That’s indeed from the Former Demon King, but why is the Fairy Queen in this?”
—The Demon King!
The Fairy jumped with her response. She couldn’t accept that title as it was too grand for her.
—It’s not real Demon King! Just a self-styled one, the first Demon King, or what do you call it? Anyway, the first Demon King was a treacherous traitor of the Fairy World!
“Huh?!”
Shock.
The Demon King worshipped in the Demon Realm turned out to be a traitor in the Fairy World.
—Long ago, when the Fairy Queen found it difficult to gaze upon this world as she does now, there was a sapient being she contracted with after much hardship. Back then, communicating with the Fairy Queen was an extraordinary talent, so they created a fitting power for such a small existence and really cherished and nurtured that being! The Fairy Queen probably remembers even the cerebral cortex of that being!
“Wow.”
So the first Demon King was an apostle of the Fairy Queen.
The Fairy took a rough breath.
—But that bad sapient being betrayed the Fairy Queen by stealing only her power, claiming to be a fool for incorrectly writing the contract!
Whoa.
The Demon Realm back then was a place where the strong trampled the weak even betraying the gods.
—Without keeping the promise of creating a basic coordinate transmitter, you know!
The Fairy stomped her foot on the table.
—How long do you think it took for the Fairy Queen to send another Fairy to act as a coordinate transmitter because that ungrateful being didn’t create it! On top of that, it’s also a main reason the now grumpy Fairy Queen can only indirectly communicate with the sapient beings here!
An amazing fact.
“I think I’ve heard this story somewhere. They say demons are the former priest class who stole the powers of the gods. Is the first Demon King kind of like that?”
—That’s right! Just a thief! It’s funny to claim to be a Demon King! Just a common thief!
Wow.
So deep of a backstory.
—But.
The Fairy began to calm down a bit. Looking down at the jewelry box, one corner of her mouth curled up a little.
—Since it’s returned, the struggles of that ungrateful fellow have become meaningless, right?
A laugh erupted.
—Even if it was stolen, in the end, it’s still the power of the Fairy Queen. The fate has always wanted to return to its original owner. After enduring through generations and finally reaching the Great Fairy, it seems it finally couldn’t hold on and flowed all the way here! It serves them right!
The Fairy looked back happily.
—You’ve brought a good partner! You really are the savior of the Fairy World! From now on, we will be like family!
The Fairy was genuinely pleased.
Ugh.
It felt like she had to hand over the Demon King’s legacy to the Fairy World.
This is mine…
Having the original owner from hundreds of years ago suddenly appear complicated her feelings.
But if it’s stolen property, returning it is the right thing to do.
“So what should we do? Will you use it from now on, Fairy?”
—Uh…
The Fairy gazed at the Power Gem. For a moment, she continued staring with some unknown reason before licking her lips in regret.
—I don’t think I can handle this in terms of my existence. Only the Great Fairy whom the Fairy Queen has directly interacted with might be able to handle it. The fate probably guides it that way too.
The Fairy frowned in thought.
—What if we rescue the Great Fairy, who is expected to be imprisoned by the Cult, and give it to them? Then we might receive incredible rewards from the Fairy Queen! Like her cherished possessions!
Wow, amazing rewards!
That sounds good.
“Like treasures?! Or immortality?!”
—Even better than that! The sapient beings may experience happiness that is otherwise unimaginable!
Wow wow.
Pastel’s cheeks flushed.
The Fairy’s future looks bright too, as she glowed with excitement.
“Okay! Then until I hand it over to the Great Fairy, I will use it like it was originally mine! Since the compass says there’s another Power Gem nearby, let’s recover the stolen goods!”
Go go!
—Huh? How will you use it? Since it’s infused with the power of the Fairy Queen, only the Great Fairy should be able to use it!
Ahem.
Pastel puffed her chest.
“I may look like just the next Demon King. I don’t know which part is unmanageable, but selected humans can probably use it!”
The first Demon King must have arranged it nicely.
—You were the next Demon King?!
The Fairy’s mouth fell open.
—Then you’re a recognized thief in the Demon King lineage?!
Whoa.
That makes her feelings quite complicated.
“Well, I do love money, so it’s true…”
She couldn’t deny it.
The Demon Kings of the past must have an eye for people!
The Fairy admired her.
—So that’s why! Now I understand why you don’t get stuck with love charms and can eat Gems! It was the power of the Demon King acting!
Whoa.
So that’s what it was!
Incredible deductive reasoning.
—You’re an anomaly, but the reason was different from what I thought! I assumed you were pure indigenous, so I thought you could handle it, but it turns out you aren’t pure, and that’s why it didn’t work! Sprinkling ink on a blank canvas, what difference does it make!
“Am I not pure?”
—Yep!
The Fairy affirmed happily.
Wow wow.
Feeling like she finally got to know herself!
Pastel felt like she had successfully found her identity.
#”Is it a relic?”
Hearing the question, Melissa looked puzzled.
“There wasn’t anything like that. The investigations from the Knight Order were the same, and I didn’t find anything when I looked around either.”
“Anything similar? Like some inexplicable passage or suspicious door?!”
“Nothing like that. Given how the Mine is designed for space utilization, every corner would have its layout reflected. If there was something, wouldn’t the miners have reported it?”
“Seems like it.”
Pastel examined the Compass Friend. Since they had descended to the Mine’s depths, the needle was trembling upwards.
It felt like there was something along the way down the Mine. Since the Former Demon King was from so long ago, he probably arranged his treasures before the Mine got this deep.
“What’s that?”
“Compass Friend!”
“We know that already.”
Pastel repeated lifting the Compass Friend towards the ceiling of the break room several times before putting it down again.
It looks like they would need to explore separately.
Instead, Melissa bit into a freshly mined Power Gem she had brought along.
Unfortunately, the freshly dug Power Gem from the Mine seemed to disappoint—its taste didn’t seem significantly different. The sweetness was slightly stronger, but if one didn’t know and just ate it, they might not really notice.
“Disappointing.”
Apologies to the Demon Lord, who must have been cooking in the difficult kitchen deep in the Mine, but she had to pass such a taste evaluation.
“I wouldn’t know since I’m not eating it, but there probably wouldn’t be significant differences. Most of the magic dissipates as soon as it’s mined. After that, there’s not much difference.”
“So you mean I should bite into the chunks of Power Gem lodged in rocks to taste their freshness?”
“Is that how it works?”
Melissa looked flustered.
“If you want to do that, then fine, but is there really a need to do that in front of others?”
“Yes!”
“Is that right?”
“Yes yes!”
Pastel finished putting the gemstone in her mouth. She brushed her hands off but suddenly remembered something, and her expression darkened.
“But, but…”
“Yes?”
“Magic consumption makes animal friends violent, right?”
She also heard the Sky Whale got even bigger due to the magical energies permeating the atmosphere.
“Usually, yes?”
“So if there’s a relic here, and there’s a monster inside, it could be super strong?”
Melissa pondered for a moment.
“That’s possible?”
Whoa.
That can’t be good.
Ahhh.
Pastel, who said she would retrieve the stolen goods, now needed saving.
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