An extraordinary meeting is held as the Eight Divine Lights (Levitein) return, except for Val, who was sent out of the Imperial City.

''How did it go?''

　The emperor asked the question after the greeting, and Claude was the first to answer.

It was a horde of ogres that I was dealing with. It's not natural that there should be so many ogres in the degraded mountains. I looked into it and there was no trace of them. We don't know how they managed to keep the horde together, or even how they got here.

'It's the same here. Thousands of mooks, food, feces, and nothing that looks like they've moved in, which is also consistent with the fact that there's nothing that looks like they've moved in.

　The emperor is puzzled when he hears the report of the Yagami Akira (Levatain)'s people.

''Are you saying that you sent demons to various places using transference techniques and the like?　What kind of monster can pull off a feat that even Vilhemina would find difficult to pull off?

　He let out a voice with an expression of disbelief.
　Meena was the most skilled in magic among all of them, and the fact that there was a being who could do what even she couldn't do was the last thing the Emperor wanted to think about.

''Probably a summoning technique.''

　It was that Vilhemina who said it.
　Since it was rare for her to speak up spontaneously, the emperor couldn't hide his happiness as he asked.

''When I think of summoning techniques, I think of spirit summoning, but are there things that call demons?''

'Oh. It's called the Dark Summoning Technique for convenience. Not to mention demons, if you're good enough, you can summon the people of the demon world as well. I don't know if you can follow it until you can.

The Art of Summoning Darkness: ......

A citizen of the demon world?

　Claude rolls his eyes at what he's never heard before, and Manuel twists his face in disgust.
　The demon world is a place where evil beings and villains banished from the heavenly realm are said to reach after death, and it is an abomination to the good ones.
　You can't blame them for thinking it's unheard of to have the means to summon such a being.

'Vilhemina, may I ask you a few more details?'

What do you mean by that?

　Meena responds to the emperor's question with a question.
　The emperor is not offended by her rude attitude, but patiently asks the question.

'Whatever you need to summon, or what kind of being you can call,'

'Basically, it should be the same as summoning a spirit. A good practitioner can summon large numbers or powerful beings without a catalyst. Assuming that this disturbance was caused by a dark summoning technique, there were a few people there who were very good at it, or one person who was extraordinarily powerful.

　The emperor's expression twitched as Meena answered.

''Is it possible that there is more than one person who is incredibly talented?''

'I can't deny it, but they wouldn't have been involved in this situation. If there had been, it would have been far better to call in one of the more powerful beings ...... daemons and dragons than to call in thousands of ogre swarms.

　She says, and Manuel asks next.

'What makes you say that you didn't use transference magic?

''You may not know this, but the difficulty level of moving ten thousand small fishes with the transference magic is vastly different from that of scattering them in various places with the summoning technique. The former is far more difficult. If there was a surgeon who could do that, he would have summoned a few daemons. That would be far more troublesome, right?

　He acknowledges Meena's words with a cluck of his tongue.

'Indeed. One demon is much tougher than ten thousand ogres.'

'Furthermore, I can perceive the residue and signs of transference magic, but not summoning magic.

　The affirmation nodded its head at this statement of hers.

'You mean that the difficulty of perceiving jutsu is different too?'

''That's right. If it's a summoning technique, it's hard to get within fifty meters, but if it's a transference technique, I can go ten kilometers. You can be assured that it would be difficult to use a large scale transference technique without me noticing.

　No one laughs at Meena's words.
　She wasn't well-liked, but everyone recognized her abilities.

''What about the possibility that she actually had such strength but didn't dare to?

　Here Val opens his mouth.

'Of course I have, sir. But I believe that you will find yourself in a labyrinth of thought, with no end in sight, and unable to come out.

　It was Meena, who was rapidly becoming polite in her speech to him.
　Several people, including Manuel, looked at her with a pained expression, but none of them objected aloud.

''That's right. Since there are so many things we don't know, I guess it's no use thinking about it.'

　Val replied and then asked the Emperor.

'What can I do for you, Your Majesty?'

...... Send spies out of the country. "Send spies abroad to . Or perhaps other countries are the source of the problem.

Is that all?

　Naturally, it was Meena who was harsh on him.

"I can't afford to send you out on domestic patrols all the time.

''However, there are probably not many beings that can compete with an ogre pack or a gargoyle pack alone or in small numbers. In the military, it would be a general or knight-errant class, a few court mages, and in the civilian world, only a few first-class adventurers.

　Claude gives a plausible opinion.
　Manuel puts forth a contrary opinion.

'Really?　Yeah, it was bad, but you did a lot of damage to the enemy. Besides, the enemy has no way of knowing if we'll be patrolling on a regular basis. We're the only ones who know what we're doing, and His Majesty is the only one who knows what we're doing.

Manuel is right.

　The Emperor said.

''Thanks to you, I think you've given the enemy the impression that you don't know when the Eight Divine Brilliance (Levatain) will appear. They will be cautious in the future. If you have a total of 20,000 or so demons in your possession, it would be a different story if you lost them in the blink of an eye.

'Of course, I suppose we shouldn't rule out that possibility,'

　Claude responds, but not crisply.
　He thinks it's unrealistic, too.
　In the end, he settles on the idea of staying alert for a while and seeing what happens.