Chapter 17

His current position wasn't particularly bad, especially considering that his superior, Demiurge, had a similar personality to his, but the goal of becoming Lord Momonga's personal servant still took priority.

Unfortunately, his offer to become his personal butler was shot down, and thus a more indirect approach was needed. Of course, Diablo couldn't dream of seriously harming anyone connected to Nazarick, but that didn't mean some 'friendly' power play could not be exercised.

With Demiurge's daily report safely delivered to Albedo, the workday was officially over and he could pursue his own goals. The whole idea that every servant had time off sounded strange to be sure. A proper servant should spend every waking moment in the service of their master. However, Lord Momonga's will was absolute and it was by his order that everyone needed to take breaks.

Diablo walked through the vast corridors of Nazarick's ninth floor at a leisurely pace, enjoying the scenery. The entirety of the Great Tomb of Nazarick was a piece of art, one that defied all he had seen before.

'I wonder where Lord Momonga and Nazarick came from? He surely isn't just another otherworlder. This place and its inhabitants are different from all that came before.' Sure, the average otherworlder was a powerhouse by human standards, but for the most part, they were nothing too special.

Demiurge had spoken of a collection of worlds called Yggdrasil, but he had never been outside the Great Tomb while it inhabited a realm called Helheim. But from his superior's description, Yggdrasil was the place where Gods fought wars and regular mortals would find their demise by the first beast they encountered outside their village walls.

'That easily explains why everyone is so unfazed by my presence, even being fully aware of my capabilities. For them, I am nothing special compared to the Supreme Beings.' Diablo smirked. The thought of being just one of the crowd even with his now greatly increased power was amusing, to say the least. The world had no idea what it was facing. Surely it would be only a matter of time before someone poked the hornet's nest again and would face the horrible power that was the forces of Nazarick.

As Diablo wandered through the corridors, he finally found his target. The elderly head butler was walking somewhere at his usual fast pace.

Diablo quickly got in his path and said with a smile. "A moment of your time, please."

"Of course. Are you in need of something, young man?" Sebas responded in a kind voice with a neutral expression.

"If I'm not mistaken, you are in charge of all household duties."

"Correct."

"You see, my goal is to become Lord Momonga's personal servant and additionally serve as a bodyguard while not in service of Demiurge. I assure you, I am a perfect candidate for both of these duties." Diablo waved his hands in a somewhat theatrical manner.

"A noble goal, but I'm afraid the positions you mentioned are already taken." Sebas responded without changing his expression.

"I think I could convince you to change your mind. How about a small bet? You strike me with your best shot and if I remain standing, you will help me get this position." Diablo smirked. His power was close to that of the guardians, after all.

Sure, he didn't have an ultimate skill like them but even without one, a mere butler would not even be able to scratch him.

Sebas eyed the demon for a while and then just said. "Very well, I accept."

The fact that Sebas instantly put a shield around them both should have been a warning sign enough but Diablo was still confident that he would not lose the bet.

It was the moment when the stoic butler changed his demeanor from calm and reserved to pure murderous bloodlust, did the demon start to suspect that he might have been overly confident about his chances.

Without much hesitation, Sebas twisted his right hand into a fist and punched. Diablo did his best to dodge the strike but it still connected with his face. For a demon like him pain was inconsequential but the fear that his physical form could be destroyed and he would lose his position still existed.

Just how strong the punch was he couldn't tell, as in the next moment, he was laying on the ground with half of his face missing. Sebas resumed his calm demeanor and even extended his hand to help him up, which Diablo gratefully accepted.

"I shee…" Diablo tried to speak but quickly realized that he needed to wait for his face to regenerate first. After a few seconds he continued with a bitter smile "I underestimated you Sebas. I admit defeat."

Sebas eyed the demon once again. 'This demon surely was eager to serve but maybe he was just misguided and overly ambitious? Who am I to deny him a chance? With maid staff changing from one to five per lord on any given day, I'm sure he could be given some minor tasks here and there.'

"As I said, both positions you are aiming for are taken, but if you are willing to take a lesser responsibility, I might arrange something of the sort."

'Hmm, I should take it and see where it leads. I might not become Lord Momonga's personal servant any time soon but I could wait for a century or so for sure.' "I accept your offer." Diablo politely bowed.

"Report to assistant butler Eclair for the orientation. He can be found in the staff area at this hour." Sebas gave the demon a small smile and walked on.

Finding Eclair was not a particularly hard task. With him being part of Nazarick he instinctively knew where to find everyone connected to it.

His loud voice echoed through the corridors even in this hour of the day. "Who cleaned this? Why are there still specs of dust!"

Diablo carefully approached the assistant butler only to be met with a two feet tall creature who was scolding a dragonewt maid. "I don't care that you just spawned. If you can't do your job properly, then you should ask for help, not leave it like this!"

"Yes, sir!" The maid said quietly, teary-eyed with a lowered head.

"I apologize for the intrusion, but Sebas told me to talk with you about getting household duties."

Eclair turned his attention away from the maid and looked at Diablo with a critical eye. "Ah, yes. Sebas informed me about you. Another pair of helping hands will bring me closer to conquering Nazarick."

'What did he just say? Did I hear it right? Should I take him down personally? No, it must be some kind of test.' Diablo just stared at the penguin silently, unsure how to proceed.

After a moment he opted for the safest option and contacted his superior. { I'm sorry for disturbing you, but I have something important to report. }

{ Go on. } Demiurge instantly replied.

{ Assistant butler just confessed to me that he plans to conquer Nazarick! }

{ Oh, Eclair? Pay no attention to it. He is incapable of doing so. }

{ Shouldn't we report this to Lord Momonga? Even if there is a small chance… }

{ Lord Momonga knows. In fact, Eclair's creator, Lady Ankoro Mocchi Mochi, gave him his goal as a joke. Just ask how he plans to conquer Nazarick and you'll see. }

'A joke. One of the Supreme Beings did this as a joke?' Diablo could not wrap his head around the idea. Who in their right mind would intentionally create a creature who has the goal of usurping the masters of the Great Tomb and then put him in a position of relative power?

"I apologize for being so forward, but how do you plan to conquer Nazarick?"

"By cleaning, of course. My cleaning abilities are so great that one day I will be recognized as the true ruler of the Great Tomb of Nazarick!" Eclair exclaimed with passion in his voice as he raised his flipper in the air.

'He was created as a joke! I'm sure not even my fellow colors would be this cruel. I must applaud this Lady Ankoro Mocchi Mocchi for such a creative way of toying with someone's entire existence.' Diablo couldn't help but be impressed. 'May the afterlife be merciful upon their enemies, as surely the Supreme Beings won't be.'

"Indeed. I'm looking forward to learning from you, Sir Eclair."

What came as a mild surprise was that the penguin was actually good at cleaning. Of course, for someone with his abilities, mastering everything Eclair could teach was a trivial matter.

At the end of the day, he had gotten his own small area to clean every other day. What came as a much greater surprise was just how steep the competition was among the maids and manservants.

Once there were under sixty of them, then their numbers had steadily increased since Lord Momonga arrived in this world and now totaled over one hundred and fifty.

Another creation of Lady Ankoro, Pestonya, had rather sternly warned him to not take anyone else's work. Any disruption of the carefully maintained balance could lead to serious infighting which in turn would greatly displease the Supreme Beings.

The tutelage of the head maid was just as short, as learning how to make beverages and delivering food was child's play. Although it came with a great disappointment that he would not be allowed to make any beverage for Lord Momonga. Albedo was the one in charge of it and rarely delegated the task to anyone else, especially someone who had not personally proved their worth to the Guardian Overseer.

The recent discoveries made it rather clear. He needed to prove his worth to Demiurge and Albedo first before he would even have a chance to serve Lord Momonga directly.

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The tests on the Demons in the nightmare realm were disappointing, to say the least. Sure, it showed how much their bodies could be reshaped but none of them felt even a sliver of fear and eagerly complied with all his orders.

Ultimately, it meant there were no real test subjects to bring into the nightmare realm at the moment. With Lord Momonga prohibiting any instigation of conflict with current allies, there were almost no options left.

The only thing that was not prohibited was summoning, and thus a plan was born. He would simply summon otherworlders for tests.

Normally, it would take thirty human mages and three days just to perform a ritual that needed decades to prepare. Of course, it could be done without any preparations but then the usual success rate was less than one percent and could lead to the summoning of children like the ones Lady Buku had taken in.

But Demiurge was not a lesser being, and together with his new assistant, managed to vastly improve upon the ritual, making the summoning process take less than fifteen minutes. It even had a special magical algorithm for target choosing which would ensure at least eighty percent success.

For the first try, Demiurge decided to use the nightmare realm created by his ultimate skill which would ensure the target didn't run off or cause a ruckus within the Great Tomb itself.

With all the preparations done, both he and Diablo stood inside the magic circle that was drawn on the smoldering ground within the nightmare realm that at this moment resembled the seventh floor of Nazarick.

Demiurge exhaled, and with a relaxed expression, started the ritual. There was no need for any chanting as it was something humans did due to their pitiful amount of magicules.

Once the ritual had ended, a lone man appeared in the middle of the circle clad in plate armor with a dirty tabard over it that by the looks of it once was white. There was a red cross on the tabard. The man held a longsword in his arms.

For a moment he looked around confused and then dropped to his knees and wept. "You have forsaken me, Lord. This sinner did not deserve to be in your embrace."

'How interesting. This man resembles a crusader from Midgard. But even if I convert levels to approximate magicule level he is below what the average crusader mob had. There might be a possibility that he came from a different realm.' Demiurge mused as he silently observed the weeping man.

He then smirked and said with a pleasant tone. "Welcome to my realm. You will have the honor of being my test subject."

The man stopped weeping and looked up at Demiurge. His expression hardened as he responded with conviction."Do your worst, Devil! Lord will bring me back into his embrace once I have paid for my sins."

"Whatever false God you pray to has no power here."

The man did continue to pray to his God as Demiurge half-removed his skin and twisted it in agonizing knots. It didn't take long to notice a rather interesting pattern; the more pain this man was in, the more his magicule count rose.

At first, it wasn't that noticeable but the agony the man was in skyrocketed his power. With the potential danger that his test subject could outgrow his restraints and break out, Demiurge decided to stop and investigate further.

Unfortunately, his skillset didn't allow him to look into the soul of anyone who wasn't connected to Nazarick, and connecting this man to Nazarick solely for a test was not an option. Not that he could do it in the first place.

Additionally, as an otherworlder he definitely already had a name, and thus naming him was not possible either.

Just to be on the safe side, Demiurge put the man in the infinite prison. A skill recently granted to pretty much every top member of Nazarick as a necessity, if need be, to be able to contain their extremely destructive power in a potential fight with someone like Milim.

He then brought his test subject out of his realm. The man was not able to tell the difference and didn't take it as a sign to start any struggle.

Now came the hardest part. Wasting Lord Momonga's precious time to compensate for his own inabilities. { Lord Momonga, I deeply apologize for disturbing you, but I have a test subject who possibly possesses a unique skill with a minuscule possibility of being a potential threat if not handled properly. }

{ What test subject? Did you summon more elemental or powerful demons? } Momonga responded almost instantly.

{ No, in this case, the summon is an otherworlder. I have safely contained him in an infinite prison, so at the moment, he poses no risk. }

{ You summoned an otherworlder!? } Momonga screamed in his mind.

Demiurge gulped as his hands started to shake. { I-I took every precaution p…}

Before he could even finish the sentence Lord Momonga stood in front of him with Rubedo, who was holding a spear covered in some kind of dark corrosive substance that dripped on the scorched ground in front of her.

Momonga instantly put another shield around the prison that held the man and then walked closer without saying a single word to Demiurge.

'I made a mistake! How could I be so careless?' Demiurge lamented as he tried to keep his composure.

"Cancel the infinite prison." Momonga ordered him, which Demiurge instantly did.

The man inside the shield continued praying to whatever God he was referencing as the Lord despite the pain he was in.

Demiurge watched as Lord Momonga took another step closer and after standing like this for a few seconds he lifted his arm and cast death lightning at the man, who started to scream incoherently. It didn't take long for the man to be reduced to ash.

Momonga exhaled and said. "This man had a unique skill called |Punished|, which let him gain power when in pain." He then turned to face Demiurge who shrunk down trying to disappear into the earth beneath his feet.

Momonga took a step in his direction and asked in his usual calm, deep tone. "Were you aware that summoning otherworlders is random?"

"Yes. B-but I took all possible precautions." Demiurge desperately tried to remain calm. The punishment was inevitable and definitely deserved.

"And what would have happened if you had summoned not a single man, but the entire Seraph or Asgardian guild by accident?" Momonga asked as his burning gaze made the demon lose all color.

"I-I didn't think such a possibility existed. Th-The ritual was designed to use a certain amount of magicules as the absolute limit." Demiurge shook uncontrollably. 'I could have doomed Nazarick. I didn't think it was possible but if Lord Momonga thinks such an outcome was possible my actions were beyond foolish.'

Demiurge dropped to his knees. "Lord Momonga, I am unworthy to keep my position. I put the entire Great Tomb in danger with my carelessness."

'This again! At least he is not demanding to be executed.' Momonga looked down at his subordinate. 'Maybe I was too paranoid when considering the possibility of another guild being summoned, but still, it's better to be on the cautious side. We all were summoned in one go by something.'

"We all make mistakes. Learn from it so that it does not happen again. You are not stepping down from your position as the guardian of the seventh floor. But if you have new experiments planned in future, run them by me first."

"O-Of course, Lord Momonga." Demiurge responded as he wiped black tears from his crystalline eyes behind his glasses.

"I didn't expect Lord Momonga to be this forgiving." Diablo remarked once Momonga and Rubedo had teleported away.

"We may not deserve it, but Lord Momonga has always been this kind to those in his service." Demiurge replied.

'I should get over my pride and rely on Lord Momonga's wisdom, especially if he is so willing to give it.' Demiurge decided. He then walked up to the pile of ash that was all that reminded him of the otherworlder he summoned and carefully gathered them in a small bag.

Usually, cleanup was the job for the lesser demons roaming the seventh floor, but this was a mistake he made, thus it needed to be cleaned by himself.

Proofreading by Visur Nyxan, Sad_Smiles, I AM THE STRING CUTTER, Abyssalidiot, RottenPizza, Kazuma, and Alassandro.

AN: Thank you for reading the story, and if you have caught up to the latest chapter, you can check out my other work or join my discord server (Link is in my profile) where additional chapters are available.