The Tired Devil King

The next morning, everyone was at the southern gates of Pandemonium, about to send off Kisuke, Sona, and Serafall who were going to leave for their training.

"Can't you just dig around here to serve as the training venue? Do you really have to leave?", asked Hestia with a concerned expression because she'd heard last night that their next training would be another dangerous one.

Patting her head, Kisuke explained, "I could do that, however, I want them to have the greatest chance they could get in order to succeed, and creating an artificial training area won't help with that."

Hestia wanted to spend more time with him before he went home, but she'd guessed that it wouldn't be that easy. Pouting her mouth, "Then be careful. Make sure that no harm comes their way and to you too."

"I promise I'll do that, so you don't have to worry. In the meantime, Yoruichi and the others will tell you, Artemis-sama, and Line-san about the world we come from. I gave her some devices that served as entertainment in our world and I'm sure you'll all enjoy that."

Serafall then excitedly turned to Ophis and said, "Make sure that they'll go through our playlist too, alright~?"

And with a thumbs up, Ophis replied with an unusually excited voice, "They shall become our Magical Girl comrades."

"...Nee-sama... Just what have you been teaching Ophis?", asked Sona with a regretful face. She never would have thought that one of the greatest existences in their world would turn out like her sister, who was already very strange by any standard.

But Serafall ignored her and kept telling Ophis, Claire, and Tanis her reminders as if a priest instructing her acolytes on how to preach to the world around them.

After a few minutes of saying goodbye to each other, Kisuke, Sona, and Serafall started walking off towards the forest where they would teleport away to their destination.

.

.

.

Whistling harsh dry winds that could take the moisture from any living being's skin, extremely fine and searing golden sand that formed mountains as far as eyes could see, pure blue sky with the sun's burning rays that could blind any normal people for a short while if they were to make a mistake and look at it directly.

The Devil King, her sister, and the candy store owner arrived at the driest place in this world, where no living being could survive, even monsters.

Serafall looked around and commented, "Even for a desert, this place is way too arid. I'm amazed you found this place."

Kisuke immediately put up a 100-meter diameter barrier to stop the blistering wind, "This is the deepest place of the arid region called the Grand Sand Sea, located southwest of the center of the continent. This place is so hostile that even strong monsters avoid it. I coincidentally found this place when I'm looking at the geography records of this world."

Sona, meanwhile, nodded to herself, "I see. So you wanted us to train here where it would be hard for us to use our Magic."

"There's that. But more importantly, this place would help the two of you realize something and I think that it would greatly help in what you're trying to achieve."

Sona and Serafall immediately became curious since Kisuke had never mentioned anything about something they'd needed to realize, "What is it?" the latter asked.

"We'll talk about that later. For now, I'll arrange a living space for us."

After asking the sisters to move to the edge of the barrier, Kisuke reinforced the sand below them to make it act like solid ground. The next instant, contrary to the sisters' expectations that he would be building a small house by taking out materials one by one and assembling it, Kisuke suddenly took out an entire log house and even planted complementary trees around it as a source of shade.

"...Do you always carry houses with you?" Even though she too has a substantial amount of space for her personal use, Serafall couldn't fathom Kisuke's mindset that allowed him to carry such unlikely things.

Patting her shoulder, Sona shook her head and said, "Don't ask about it, Nee-sama. He'll give you a look like you're the weird one here."

And indeed, Kisuke briefly turned around and gave her a look as if he's wondering why she wouldn't do such a thing herself.

And for a short moment, Serafall had an urge to punch his face.

It only took Kisuke a few minutes to arrange everything and compared to the scenery outside, the environment around the log house is what you'd find on the side of a tropical mountain.

"So this is where we'll be staying. It's pretty nice.", Serafall noted that there's even Magic that keeps the air cool, making it a very pleasant place to stay compared to the desert around them.

"Yep~ I have to make sure I have an enjoyable stay~."

Sona and Serafall immediately noticed something wrong with his words. While the former could only smile wryly in realization, the latter who was very much not used to Kisuke methods, became confused.

Noticing Serafall's confusion, Kisuke cleared it up for her, "The reason why we're training here is for you to get used to this environment and discover something out of it. How could you achieve that if you were to have a good time here? At most, you'd be sleeping here once every three days."

"...Are you serious?" Even though she could take the heat and it was not an actual danger for her, it was still very uncomfortable. They would have to endure that for three consecutive days?

Kisuke's demeanor suddenly became cold as his usual gentle eyes instantly became sharp, "Please take it off your mind that we're here to take it easy. It's true that I have a way to help you, but that doesn't mean it'll be less difficult for you. I'm just speeding up the process that would normally take you decades, if not centuries of effort, to achieve."

"To accommodate that speed, it'll actually be much more dangerous for you, so please have a proper mindset as we need to start right now."

Serafall's eyes widened and she immediately started reflecting. It seems that after being relieved of her Devil King's duties and arriving in a very peaceful world, her perception and sense of danger seem to have changed without her knowledge, and in a dangerous way too.

Taking a deep breath, slapping her cheeks with both of her hands, Serafall woke herself up, "I'm sorry. Please tell me what to do."

Serafall took a peek at Sona whose expression hasn't changed but only now she noticed the sharpness in her eyes that had never disappeared, 'You've really changed, huh? I wonder if this is for the best?'

Naturally, Kisuke wasn't really angry at her, but just being strict. He also pitied her as he understood where she's coming from, 'Just from a short stay, her outlook changed. That just shows how much she longed for peace and quiet. For being a Devil King, she's already tired.'