Wester felt uncomfortable.
She did not understand why the human in front of her was so powerful and able to suppress her with only his spiritual oppression.
He even immediately guessed that she was Astaroth's subordinate. Or rather, she was her loyal servant!
Hours earlier, Astaroth had sent her to the human world on a mission.
That mission was to investigate the movements of Nomad and Edwin Black. This hospital was Nomad's affiliated hospital, but she had not found any clues about their movements.
She had planned to go elsewhere, but here she was now.
She was being threatened by a human!
"Um... Shiryu-kun, please stop. This woman... She didn't hurt me and just wanted to ask me before you attacked her."
Osaragi suddenly said.
"Hmm, really?"
Shiryu was stunned.
Osaragi nodded, "Yes."
Wester felt that the oppression pressing on her body finally disappeared, she was relieved and jumped back.
She kept her distance from Shiryu who she thought was dangerous.
"Ahem! There seems to be a misunderstanding between us. I thought you wanted to do something bad to my woman, I immediately attacked you because of that."
"It's my fault, sorry."
Shiryu pretended to cough and apologized to the woman in front of him.
Come to think of it, it would be bad if he killed Astaroth's subordinate just because of a misunderstanding.
He might have a hard time wooing that woman in the future.
"...." Wester.
The man in front of her suddenly became friendly.
She was not sure what to say.
Osaragi sighed and was amused. She didn't bother to argue that she was Shiryu's woman.
After all, what was the point?
"Hey, why are you so quiet?" Shiryu asked.
Wester bit her lip before saying, "It's nothing. Sou Shiryu, right? I'm Wester, the fire that protects Queen Astaroth. Do you have anything to do with Nomad?"
She suspected that Shiryu could be that strong because he had something to do with the organization created by that man—Edwin Black.
If he had a connection with him...
Even if she was injured and the other party was stronger than her, she would not leave without bringing back anything.
In other words, she would fight and force her opponent to give her information.
"Nomad?" Shiryu was confused but soon, he remembered the name of the organization belonging to one of the villain bosses from the Taimanin series.
He also remembered that the Chaos Arena was at one time built by Nomad to obtain secret funds and contacts in the criminal demon world.
The boss behind the organization was a villain boss named Edwin Black. He was a high-ranking demon and was known as the Vampire King.
More than that, Shiryu knew of his obsession with Asagi.
That meant...
When he rescued Asagi from the Chaos Arena yesterday.
Edwin probably knew this and felt green.
The corners of his lips raised, his expression looked evil in Osaragi and Wester's eyes. The latter became even more wary!
[Host, control your expression. You look like a real villain boss right now.]
Hearing what System-chan said, Shiryu's expression returned to normal. This was bad, he was too excited when imagining Edwin's reaction.
Because of that, he also wanted to see Asagi again soon.
He had to woo her faster.
"I know about that organization. But my relationship with them... It can be said to be bad. Not long ago, they tried to capture one of my women. That pissed me off. So, I destroyed their place of business."
Osaragi: I remember Asagi-san not being your woman yet, Shiryu-kun.
"...!" Wester was again startled and lowered her guard.
While holding her stomach that felt a bit sore, she looked at Shiryu in a slightly friendly manner.
"Sou Shiryu, I want to talk nicely."
Although at first glance, she still wore a cold and indifferent expression.
Five minutes later.
Only Shiryu and Osaragi remained in the corridor.
Long story short — before leaving, Wester asked about the details of what he said and if he knew of any other moves that Nomad made.
Shiryu kindly informed her and even a little spoiler about Edwin's plan from the original work.
Wester was pleased and seemed to have a pretty good impression of him.
That's good.
Shiryu hoped the woman would talk about how good he was to her boss, Astaroth.
"Shall we return to the others now, Shiryu-kun?" Osaragi asked the man standing beside her.
Shiryu took out his diary, "Yes, but wait after I write something."
What did he write?
Osaragi knew he would definitely write something about their encounter with the Wester.
He couldn't miss this opportunity to increase the word count in his diary, right?
Osaragi smiled slightly.
[That was close. Osaragi—or rather Kobachi happened to meet a demon who was a loyal subordinate of the Queen of the Inferno in the hospital.]
[Worried that the demon would hurt Kobachi, I immediately attacked the demon that looked like a Dark Elf.]
[However, I was mistaken. Wester only asked about Nomad, an organization created by a high-ranking man/demon named Edwin Black. His organization was also the organization that created the Chaos Arena. Just like in the original work, the Queen of the Inferno and Edwin seem to have a bad relationship even though they are both Demons.]
[Not only the zombie pandemic, the world is also filled with danger due to the existence of demons living in the Demon Realm. Many demons also often come to the human world and pretend to be human to do evil things.]
The heroines: The demons did that!?
Many of those who had not joined Shiryu's group grew afraid to leave the house.
Osaragi adjusted the position of her glasses and commented, "Shiryu-kun, is it okay to let Wester go? She's a demon."
If Shiryu wanted to, she was sure he could kill Wester. However, she stopped him because she thought the demoness was not evil.
Only after seeing what Shiryu wrote in his diary did she realize that she was a bit naive.
Shiryu closed the diary and took this opportunity to take Kobachi's gentle hand.
"Don't worry, even if she comes back and intends to harm you or the other women in my group, I can defeat her easily."
The problem was Astaroth.
Her power seemed no less than him and he was not sure he could defeat her.
So rather than make her angry that he killed her subordinate, he would rather make her have a good impression on him.
[You also did it to woo her in the future.]
System-chan, you don't need to say that.
Osaragi: "That's not what I meant... But thank you Shiryu-kun."
Before Shiryu said equally, she was a little surprised because Osaragi suddenly took off her glasses and showed her a face no less than a heroine like Kaguya.
After taking off her disguise as a nerdy girl, she was as beautiful as in the original work!
Not only that, she stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek for three seconds.
"Osaragi, you..."
"That's your reward. Oh, and you should also take responsibility for Miko. She seems to like you."
Osaragi put her glasses back on and her pretty girl aura instantly diminished drastically.
However, there was a slight blush on her cheeks. After all, it was her first time kissing a boy.
She herself wasn't sure why she did that. Maybe because she got carried away and Shiryu's face was too dangerous for the women?
Shiryu grinned, "I'll be in charge of all the women in my group. You guys are my wings."
Osaragi's lips twitched.
At this point, you no longer hide your intention to have a harem.
'Even so... It's not bad and is the best choice.'
Under normal circumstances, or rather before the zombie pandemic started. She must have thought herself crazy for being willing to share a man with many women.
She wasn't even interested in dating because ever since becoming a high school student, she was determined to hide her true appearance so that she wouldn't be chased by many boys like in junior high school anymore.
But now?
Osaragi felt herself a bit crazy.
...
In one of the plains in the Demon Realm called the Magma Zone. This place was located in the corners of the Demon Realm, an area of extreme heat where Inferno Demons and other fire-based demons resided.
The land was ruled by Astaroth from her residence, and was independent of the territories controlled by the Nomads or the 9 Noble Demon Families. As the "Queen of the Inferno", she was powerful enough to keep the other powers at bay.
Sitting on the throne of her palace, Astaroth propped up her chin with one hand. As a demon, she had a large chest, amber eyes, and red hair that was waist-length.
She wore a revealing red dress with matching evening gloves that revealed a stylized heart tattoo on her left breast. Her red high heels were hidden by the length of her dress. She also wore gold pendant earrings, had a long tongue and a navel piercing.
By demon and human standards, she was undoubtedly very beautiful and voluptuous.
It was not for nothing that Shiryu wanted to woo her rather than antagonize her.
"Welcome back Wester. You were pretty quick, did you get what I wanted?"
Astaroth welcomed the arrival of her right hand, Wester and asked while looking at her from a high position.
Wester knelt before the burning throne and replied, "Yes, Your Highness Astaroth. I returned with the information you wanted. However, there is one thing I must report first... I obtained the information from a human named Sou Shiryu."
"Human?" Astaroth's crimson eyes flashed slightly, she leaned her plump body forward and said, "That was unexpected. Seeing you return with such injuries... Did you fight with the demons under Edwin Black's command to get this information?"
Wester hesitantly said, "No, I was actually injured and defeated by the humans I mentioned."
"What? Wester, are you serious?"
"I'm serious, Your Highness. I've fought with him and... I lost badly. His power is at a level that is unreasonable for a human. He was able to bring me to my knees and injure several of my internal organs with just his oppression."
Astaroth knew Wester would not dare to joke with her.
But she was surprised that her right hand was defeated by a human. She knew how strong Wester was, so the man named Sou Shiryu must be very strong.
Instead of being angry, Astaroth smiled broadly and seemed very enamored. "How interesting! A human who can make you kneel without breaking a sweat? I haven't heard about the existence of such a valuable 'asset' in the human world for a long time. I wonder what it would be like if it was my flame that tried to tame his arrogance."
Wester did not argue and said, "He is indeed unique, Your Highness. Instead of killing me as an enemy, she let me go. He said that there is a greater threat to both of us right now."
"Oh?" Astaroth still smiled broadly and asked, "So he's trying to play diplomacy by giving your life back? Tell me, what information did he consider valuable enough to exchange for my servant's life?"
Wester answered unhurriedly. "Shiryu revealed the Nomad movement. That organization, under the direct command of Edwin Black, is conducting forbidden experiments in the human world. They seek to fuse human technology with pure demonic energy to create a 'bridge' that could destabilize the Demon Realm."
Astaroth's expression turned cold and the temperature around her increased. "Edwin Black... that arrogant vampire is apparently trying to build his own version of the 'Ark' over there. He thinks he can overstep the authority of the great demons with his human toys?"
There were three Great Demons in the Demon Realm. She herself was one of them.
The Vampire King, Edwin Black was also actually a Great Demon like herself. But because in the past he had planned to usurp her territory by offering her to be his wife, she was disgusted and hostile to him until now.
She naturally refused the arrogant vampire's offer and challenged him to a fight with her.
However, Edwin never dared to accept her challenge and continued to plot other things in the dark.
As for the last Great Demon?
Astaroth was not hostile to him because she did not have much contact with him.
Reportedly, he was also dead and replaced by someone.
That had nothing to do with her.
Wester added more information. "Shiryu told me the exact location where Edwin was gathering those resources. Thanks to him, the mission you gave me can now be completed with accurate target data."
Hearing this, Astaroth stood up from the throne, aura of red flames exploding around her. "Amazing. Sou Shiryu is not only strong, but he also knows how to please this queen. Alright, Wester. We will immediately move to destroy Edwin's toys in the human world. And after the dust settles, bring me more information about Shiryu. I want to see if he's tough enough to stand beside my throne... or under my feet."
The Queen of the Inferno licked her own lips.
Her expression looked lustful, but Wester knew she was reacting that way not just because she really wanted Shiryu to be her husband or something.
Well, maybe a little. After all, she had been single for a long time and for your information... Wester knew her queen had a diary filled with her feelings about romance and love, and was very corny and embarrassing about her hopes of finding love someday.
The woman was actually unlucky when it came to love.
It's because her standards in choosing a man as her couple are too high. For example, she wants to have a man who is stronger than her.
That's why she often looks for a man to beat her in battle and mercilessly kill anyone who isn't strong enough.
She was a battle maniac.
'Sorry Sou Shiryu, I forgot about my queen's personality before telling her about you.'
'Now, she wants to defeat you!'
Wester felt guilty.
She didn't think Shiryu was capable of defeating Astaroth even though he was capable of defeating her easily.
When the time came, she might have to beg her queen to spare his life.
...
Shiryu suddenly shuddered.
"That woman, Wester... She didn't fail to say nice things about me to Astaroth, did she?"
[You have a keen sixth sense, host.]
Currently, he had regrouped with all the women in his group. That included the group led by Yuko and Asagi.
After many of them finished testing their new weapons. They split up again into three groups.
Their goal was to go to places suspected to be the headquarters of the Syringe organization.
Incidentally, the group led by Shiryu did not seem to be misplaced.
At an Underground Research facility — the exact location was still in Tokyo and on the surface, it just looked like an abandoned factory.
But before entering there, Shiryu's group of Asagi, Yuko and Sayo spotted several armed men standing guard around.
With a few shots from Shiryu's Dessert Eagle and Asagi's slash, they were all killed.
"I guess we didn't go to the wrong place." Sayo said as red emergency lights flickered in the hallway.
The sound of a shrill alarm rang out, and the smell of blood mixed with chemicals lingered in the air.
"Shiryu, you already know this and that's why our team composition is what it is, right?"
Yuko asked while glancing at the man walking beside her.
"Huh? Really?"
Sayo had just realized that.
Asagi focused her attention on the surroundings and was wary, but she was also curious if what Yuko said was true?
Because yes, for a small group. Each member had a high level of power compared to members in other groups.
Shiryu did not argue.
"That's right. Actually last night, I saw a vision of the future again and knew this place was a branch of the Syringe organization's headquarters. While the other two places are only inhabited by zombies. So instead of letting members who lack combat experience come here and get hurt, it would be better if only professional members came with me."
She was not lying.
Last night, his passive ability, Clairvoyance gave him a spoiler about the future.
Originally, his current group would consist of Saeko, Saya, Rei and Tsubame. In the process of the attack, all members except him and Saeko would be injured in the process.
He avoided that future and changed the team composition to what it is now.
With a team like this, Shiryu wasn't worried that anything bad would happen to his women.
Asagi, Sayo, and Yuko were surprised.
If the enemies knew Shiryu had such a cheating ability as seeing the future, they would probably vomit blood.