All the qualifying rounds for the tournament held in various locations have been completed.

　We knew our party's points earned soon after the qualifiers, but it was impossible to judge whether or not we had passed.

　The reason is that it's not a system to determine how many points you need to pass, but rather, the top 500 parties with the most points will pass after all the results from all the venues have come in.

　There are several tens of thousands of adventurers' parties in the world, and since non-adventurers were allowed to participate, there were quite a few of them.

　Most of the adventurers who had a good schedule must have participated, so we were able to narrow down the field.

　Besides, the numbers are decreasing rapidly even in the main game.
　How many of us will be able to remain until the final battle where we can fight against Master and Altrito-san?

''Fufu............''

　This is the dormitory room assigned to the Demon King's Castle.

　I'm currently sitting on a chair in the living room, waiting in front of the video board (TV) to announce the qualifiers.
　No, I think that's a bit inaccurate.

　The results have already been sent to the party leader.
　The results have already been sent to the leader of the party, and it's the one that will be announced on the video board (TV), about the result of the high profile party.

Mira, it's about to start.

　I called out to the vampire beauty who had been staring at the screen of the terminal from earlier and smiling at me.

''d*mn, I didn't know that [warrior] Alba was defending Reme-san. I thought that even her brain was made of muscle, but she's surprisingly strong. But still.........hahaha.......when I say Reme-san's performance in the preliminary round......!　This is the kind of thing that makes me feel good about editing. I'll send it to Nicola later.

　I wanted to check it objectively, so I managed to get a copy of that qualifying video.
　Mila, who joined me in the room where I was playing the video, showed great interest in it and has been watching it repeatedly ever since.

However, it's a brilliant system to visualize the activities of the support personnel as well. Even though they don't get along well with each other, it's still a good sign that he's the father of a demon king.

Mira.

　When I called out to her again, Mira-san, who was muttering something, shook her shoulders with a jolt.

.......... It's a good idea to be able to have a good time. What is it?　

The show's starting. Mira said she'd watch it, too.

Well, I guess it's that time already.

　Mila pulled her chair up snugly beside me and sat there.
　Close enough to feel her body heat and smell up close.

　From there, she took my arm further.

The only thing I can think of is that I'm not going to be able to get away with it.

Even though my participation in the tournament was of my own volition, I missed you so much, Leme.

　Come to think of it, Kash, the secretary of the General Staff, seems to be closer to me these days than before.

''Da, no.........?''

　There's no way I can say no when he looks up at me like he's peeping at me.

''It's not a no-no...''

　In the meantime, the program I had been waiting for started.

　As it was a special feature on the qualifying round of the All Sky Festival competition, I got plenty of information that I wanted.

　The information that particularly caught my attention was


''The seventh-ranked [Brave Man of Morura] Demeterre Party, the world's seventh-ranked [Brave Man of Morura], got 1,300 points and broke through the qualifiers!　Many parties were defeated in front of the tree-manipulating earth spirit art!''

''World Rank #6 [Snow White Brave] Snow Party has also gained nearly '1300 points'!　The fantastic and immensely popular snow spirit art among women and children has been brilliantly demonstrated, and has passed the preliminary round with flying colors!

　All of the other top ten parties have passed.

　In terms of people I've been involved with lately--

　No. 1 [The Hero of the Storm] Aerial Party is "2300 points", and
　Second place [The Jet Black Brave] Ex Party is '1890' points, and
　The third place 【Magic Sword Hero】Hervor Party was '1570 points,'
　No. 4 [Brave Men of Fire] Fenix Party is '1080 points,'
　Fifth place [Xunlei's Brave] Skaha Party passed with '1550 points'.
　Eleventh place 【His Majesty of Cinderella】Garo Party also seems to have passed with '720 points'.


The ninety-ninth-ranked 【Brave Man of the Silver Ridge】Nicola Party, which is always talked about in the top one hundred rankings, such as appearing in the 'Hero Show', solving the 'dungeon for all levels' and participating in the 'Tag Team Tournament' between the leader and the [Seibaku Knight], has passed the qualifying round with 660 points!

'There's more to come!　Many of you may know him for siding with the Demon King's Army Counselor in that raid battle!　Two [Black Mages], two [White Mages], two good-looking four white mages, led by a brilliantly dancing silver idol on the battlefield!　The ninety-fifth place 【Every Party of the Immortal Brave】 party also qualified with '710 points'!

'It wasn't just adventurers who made a splash!　Of the parties led by each of the thirteen leaders of the Order, as many as twelve of them have advanced to the main battle!

　[The Balance of Justice] Astraea Party qualified with '800 points'.
　The other eleven parties had also achieved excellent results in their own right.

Five other martial artists formed a party just to participate in the tournament, and although they fought separately, they gained 550 points, and a party from the east called the Five Samurai appeared and gained 680 points, and many other dark horses appeared, causing the audience to be excited!

"And it's not only normal people who are strong!　I'm going to introduce you to a whole bunch of talented people from the subhuman world too!


From the 'Impregnable Demon King Castle', the Four Heavenly Kings [Ridiculous Knight] Fulkus Party is '1650 points'!

"The Four Heavenly Kings [Queen of Vampires] Carmilla Party, also known as the Four Heavenly Kings [Queen of Vampires], has '1,260 points!

''Another Four Heavenly Kings [Demon of Love] Citry Party is '880 points' as well!

　Fulkas-san formed a party with the three dragonmen who worked at the Demon King's Castle and the Minotaur [Black Seeker] Pholus, who was under Remegeton's command.

　Immediately after the opening of the battle, she made the players in the surrounding space leave by piercing them with countless branches of her spear.
　That skill that was demonstrated in the raid battle was officially registered as a skill called 'Forest Spear (Shinso)'.

　Fulkus-san focused on evicting as many enemies as possible anyway, and Folus helped him with his black magic.
　On the other hand, each of the dragons, who prefer to fight one-on-one, did as they pleased.

　Carmilla should have purchased the magic tools found in the original dungeon, but she didn't use them this time.

　In addition to the second-in-command demon, [Skewering Lady] Hagenty, she added Lamia [Demon Eye Assassin] Botis, who was under Remegeton's command, and the remaining two were vampires.

　Citry-san led the Dream Demon Maids under her command and the fury of Charms (Charms).
　This led to a situation where the manipulated players would defeat the other players.

　In that case, the one who cast the charm would win five points. Even if the target loses, he or she will receive five points.
　In the qualifying round, when you leave, the rule is to divide the points between the two most recently damaged players by recording their magic power.

　In connection with the Four Heavenly Kings, most of the parties belonging to the Four Heavenly Kings of the East, West, North, and South Demon King's Town from the East, West, North, and South had also passed the preliminary rounds.
　The Dragon King Volak's Barbados Party also made it through the qualifying rounds with 470 points.

　For example, in order to earn 1,000 points, they would have to defeat 100 people.
　If you stay until the end, you will get the 10 points allocated to you, but you don't think about that during the game.

　It's all about how you defeat the enemy and earn points.
　With the number of players left dwindling by the minute, how many of us could expect one party to defeat more than a hundred of them?

　The top is just terrific, and the Barbados party gets a lot of points from the whole thing.

　Incidentally, the Wraith Party was also mentioned.

''Although it's unranked because it's just after its debut, the young Shunsong [Brave Man of the Lake] Wraith Party, which showed off its abilities in the raid battle, passed the qualifying round with '1150 points'!

"It's super hot that the party structure is so sharp!　Speaking of a brave party, it's normal to have sub-humans, but to my surprise, the Wraith Party has added a half-Cyclops and a demon as members. The other two members are also young 【Destructor】 and 【Black Mage】, a moderately unique member who will expand his activities after leaving the party.''

''The Wraith player who signed a contract with the water spirit body has a brilliant spirit technique!　Destructor] Fran's offensive prowess is overwhelming!　[White Mage] Joss's detailed and precise support, and [Miner] Melania's dedication and terrifying cudgel!

''In this qualifier, we even know the scores of each member, and [Black Mage] Leme has an amazing '470 points'!'''

"...hmm...!　Same as the overall points for the Barbados party at the same venue, right?　With support, it's five points to get one person out of the game, so isn't that a terrible number?'

''Black Mage] is a [position (job)] that has been treated coldly for various reasons, but looking at these numbers, its contribution can no longer be denied.''

''He was originally a member of the fourth-ranked party in the world, so of course not all [Black Mages] are like this....... However, it could be said that this was a match that showed the potential of the [Black Mage].''

"Speaking of 'black mages', the Ellie party...

　The story was told for a long time there.

　Mila next to me looked very happy.

　Also, there's a reason why our points are a little lower than the top guys.
　It's luck.

　Which party is assigned to which venue is random, in a manner of speaking.

　But the demons and other people whose regular workplaces are fixed can't go to venues that are too far away. It's not impossible for them to go, but it's a big burden for them.
　Therefore, they will be given priority to venues that are close to their area of activity.

　In addition, it seems that people who work at the same place and time are arranged not to be in the same field at the same time, for example, the date and time of the event are shifted.
　This measure was also understandable.

　If a group of people from the same dungeon got together and worked together, it would give them an advantage in the game.

　In that area, even though I'm a former Fenix Party, I've been deemed irrelevant for a while now.
　It's not uncommon in the industry for parties to change members, so if you start worrying about it that much, you won't be able to make it to the preliminary round.

　Anyway, it just so happens that our party includes the world's fourth and eleventh rankings, the four major newcomer spirit contractors and their friends, a knight leader and his men, and the four heavenly kings of the West, as well as a mysterious giant, a combination of strong people.

　As far as I've seen and heard, there were few venues where talented people were thrown in to this extent.

　There were many more people that I was interested in, but as far as I was concerned, the rest was--.

''Each of the five great demon castle monarchs have also broken through the qualifying rounds with tremendous points!

　Belzebute, Astaroth, Paimon, and Asmodeus are the Demon King Castle Monarchs of the East, West, and North.
　The parties led by each of those four [Demon Kings] all scored over '1500 points'.

　However, on this day, the party that pushed aside the many popular parties and attracted the most attention was definitely that one.

''I've touched on the exploits of many parties so far, but this is the only one that took me a while to understand. ''The Impregnable Demon Castle, the [Demon King] Lucifer Party's acquisition points are what?''

　After a generous pause, it was announced.

''-- "5,000 points"........!

　That's right. Our Demon King was awarded '5000 points'.

　In other words, we have defeated them all.

　I saw the video and it was terrific.
　Immediately after the start of the match, our Demon King-sama waved her arms and the entire field was engulfed in black flames, and the next moment, the match was over.

　She was leading the Four Heavenly Kings [Demon of Time] Agares, [Unicorn Poet] Amducias under Remegeton, and the two giants in the tenth tier placement, but the four under her command were steadfast as if they only knew it would happen.

　Whereas I preserved the magic power of the horns, and Fenix, Wraith-kun, and perhaps even Astraea-san, chose to fight the qualifiers without using the magic power of the spirits.
　The Demon King-sama didn't hesitate to release the magic power of the horns.

　If the goal was simply to get through the qualifying round, I don't think our approach was wrong.
　But to the Demon King, this is a message.

　To his master, and to the world.

　That the strongest Demon King is himself.

　Me and Mira, we knew once again how strong our king was.
　And I knew again the strength of my master.

　Because, I don't want to put it this way, but if the Demon King can do it, then perhaps - my master can do it too.

　No matter how hard I try and how much I think I've grown.
　I've never felt closer to my master.

　He is that far away, that absolute.

　And yet, this time, that man is waiting at the end of the line.
　Once he disappeared from the stage, but now he's on the battlefield once more.

　The All Heavenly Festival competition is a battle to determine the strongest.
　It wasn't clear yet how the main battle would turn out, but in some cases, he would fight his friends.

　Even if that's the case, I have the right to be my master's opponent.

　--I have no intention of giving it up to anyone.