Side Chapter — Souvenirs from the Demon Realm

Ichika and Kinue

Ichika and Kinue got recipes and ingredients for Demon Realm delicacies in addition to cooked meals put into {Storage} right after being prepared.

“Oho, so this udon from the Demon Realm... I see they kneaded flour and boiled it,” Kinue observed.

“Seems like it’s totally different from empire flour in quality and stuff. We got some Demon Realm flour right here,” Ichika said.

“Weak flour and powerful flour, I believe. They are described as such in the recipes Master brought me.”

Kinue nommed on her udon with a fork while thinking things over based on what she knew. To a house fairy like Kinue, cooking was her second-favorite thing to do, right after cleaning. (Naturally, she was beyond satisfied with her life due to being entrusted with cleaning the inn and inner parts of the dungeon by her Master, Keima.).

Incidentally, Ichika was eating her udon with chopsticks. She had apparently learned to use them so she could eat food meant for chopsticks properly. It was yet another depth that her gluttony had driven her to.

“Demon Realm flour’s in the catalog, yeah? That means we can make udon ourselves if Master’s a bro and buys some for us.”

“I can use my own DP without troubling Master, Ichika.”

“Oh yeah. I forgot you can use it too.”

Ichika was ultimately just a slave, so despite being treated as one of the top dogs of the dungeon, she couldn’t actually use the menu. Which meant she couldn’t buy things with DP. To use DP she had to send word to Keima and have him use DP that was set aside for her purposes—but if she just gave that DP to Kinue instead, she could buy as much food as she wanted without Keima’s oversight. Ichika decided to do that from now on.

“There’s lotsa other ingredients and desserts and stuff here, so let’s just chow down and see how it goes first. Look, this warm, sweet thing is pretty dang good. Demon Realm sweets! Let’s dig in together.”

“H-How is this orange stuff so sticky...? Ah, it’s the color of carrots. That explains that.”

Kinue and Ichika devoured Demon Realm desserts together. They were dishes and sweets one rarely got to eat in the empire. Pretty good for a souvenir. And the fun had only just begun—after this, Kinue would get to enjoy recreating the dishes while Ichika taste-tested those dishes to her heart’s content.

Incidentally, they got so into it they ended up eating the portion set aside for the Silkies, and despite the two offering up recreated versions of the dish as an apology, the Silkies didn’t forgive Kinue until she gave up some of her cleaning work to them.

Rei and Elka

Rei the dungeon administrator and her fairy subordinate Elka stood together. In Rei’s hands was something wrapped in cloth that Niku had given her as a souvenir from the Demon Realm.

“Elka, I received a souvenir from Niku.”

“A souvenir, Lady Rei?”

Rei removed the item from the cloth, revealing it to be a beaten-up jersey that Niku had brought back (it was a different jersey than the one with Igni’s protection).

“Erm... this is?”

“One of Master’s used jerseys. It seems that he had such an active lifestyle in the Demon Realm that she acquired many of them. She is allowing me to have this one.”

“I see?”

Elka tilted her head in confusion. She understood it was a jersey that their Dungeon Master had worn, but she didn’t really understand the significance of it. But her beloved superior Rei was hugging the jersey to her chest with a happy smile, so she didn’t rain on her parade.

“Ahaha. Niku never lets me down. This is quite an excellent specimen. It’s thoroughly stained with sweat from the hard labor he did...!”

“That’s wonderful, Lady Rei.”

“Yes. Yes, it is. Oh, wait... It is only right that I share this joy with you, my subordinate. Which would you prefer? The top part or the bottom part?”

Feeling almost heartbroken, Rei offered one half of Keima’s jersey to her subordinate. But Elka did not particularly want either. Rather, she simply couldn’t understand why Rei was so overjoyed to have the jersey at all.

“Ah! I just had an excellent idea. I shall give you the jersey that Master gave to me in the past. I will take this new one for myself.”

“Oh!” Elka’s wings fluttered. “You refer to the one that you turned into a body pillow, Lady Rei?”

“Yes. I’ve already used it often, but if you would li—”

“I could imagine nothing better.”

Elka nodded quickly. She didn’t care about Keima’s jersey, but one hugged to death by her beloved superior Rei was another matter entirely.

“Very well. I will go switch the jersey on the pillow in my room with this one.”

“Excellent. Thank you very much, Lady Rei.”

The two of them were truly alike, deep down. If you asked where they got that obsessive streak from, well, it would be hard not to look up and identify the Dungeon Core standing at the very top of them all.

Elulu and Igni

“Wow, so this is a Demon Realm toy!”

“It seems... somewhat violent?”

Igni squealed for joy while swinging around a spiked ball and chain that, while made of wood, looked incredibly deadly. Apparently it was considered safe to swing about, but that hardly looked true to Elulu. No doubt people just said that because the tips of the spikes were rounded a bit and it was all made of wood. Safety concerns were much more lax in the Demon Realm since the children were stronger.

“What about this one?! How do you play with this one?!”

“That is a weapon known as a boomerang. If you throw it, it comes flying back to you. L-Like this, I think?”

Elulu lifted the boomerang and threw it. The boomerang wobbled, then fell. It did not return.

“Ahaha! You suck!”

“As I’ve said, I’m a ghost, and we’re not very good with weapons. Though I was a bit of an archer while alive.”

“There’s a bow here too. Though the arrows are shaped kinda weird.”

“The benefit of being a ghost is that I don’t have to worry about the bowstring hitting my boobs, I suppose,” Elulu mused. Though that was countered by her not being able to pull the string well at all anymore.

There were other toys, but the fact they were literally all weapons probably said something about Demon Realm culture.

“Hyah, hyah! Blah!”

Igni stabbed her shotel through Elulu. That was pretty disturbing to her, since although she knew it wouldn’t harm her, the thrusting of the sword reminded her of how she died.

“Um, you can do that since I’m a ghost, but don’t do it to living people, okay? They’ll die. If I was alive, that single stab would have killed me. I’m not joking. Actually, it did kill me, so...”

“I know, I know! If I actually wanted to stab you, I’d {Enchant} it with fire first, duh.”

“Please don’t?! That would make me disappear, okay?!”

“Uh-huh! You’re my friend, so I won’t kill you no matter what! And don’t worry, you have my protection, so fire won’t kill you no matter what either!”

“This is the first time I’m hearing about protection?! And also, I’m already dead!”

Why had Keima ever given this child so many dangerous toys? Elulu let out a heavy sigh and faced the ceiling. All she saw was rocks.

Incidentally, the reasoning behind it was simple. Keima had asked a storekeeper for some toys, and this was all they’d had. He’d had no deep rationale behind it at all. Gimmicky weapons were the only toys the Demon Realm had. They sold very well, since Demon Realm children would play with them until they broke.

Though, well, Ichika wasn’t entirely sure the toys really counted as a souvenir for Elulu, so she gave her some Demon Realm sweets later on. Said sweets were then devoured by Rokuko’s pets.