A Demon Lord’s Tale: Dungeons, Monster Girls, and Heartwarming Bliss

A Moment of Rest (2)

After taking a good rest in Lyuu’s lap, I found myself wondering why I couldn’t sleep.

“What…Illuna and the other little girls are cooking dinner?” (Yuki)

It was about time to make dinner.

“Eh, Onii-chan? You can’t leave it to us?” (Illuna)

“No, no, it’s not like that, but… well, maybe you need some help or something…” (Yuki)

“It’s okay, you just go over there and sit with the others, okay?” (Illuna)

Illuna and the other little girls started to mention that they would be doing the cooking themselves today.

The Wife Army also sat down at the table without saying anything in particular.

“Oh, oh…wow, okay. But if you need anything else, call me, okay?” (Yuki)

“I’m sure it will be fine. Even if we get hurt, Shii will be there to help us.” (Illuna)

“That’s right! As long as Shii is here, we can do our best without problems, you see!” (Shii)

“…In the first place, they don’t get hurt that often. So, you just sit there and don’t worry about it.” (Enne)

After Enne’s words, who have now woken up after taking a nap like I did, the Wraith Girls also tried to express their feelings as if saying, “Leave it to us!”.

I glanced over at my Wife Army, but they just grinned and looked at me.

“O, okay. Okay, I’ll leave it to you.” (Yuki)

I was a little nervous, but I figured it wouldn’t be good to put a damper on their enthusiasm, so I made my way over to the adults waiting at the table.

“Those girls…they seem pretty motivated…did they practice cooking when I wasn’t around?” (Yuki)

The little girls had been helping everyone with cooking, but it had been mainly the adults who were doing the cooking, and they simply helped with the preparations.

So it was unusual for the girls to do all the cooking… Well, they sometimes sleep and wake up by themselves in the secret base they built, so on those occasions they cook for themselves.

But Layla would usually prepare the food to some extent before handing it over to them, so I believe they never really cooked everything from scratch… I wondered if they practiced while I was away.

“Mm, just like they told you, they’ve been helping us in so many ways.” (Lefi)

“Lately, whenever we cook, they always help us out! I don’t have to worry about them cooking anymore.” (Lyuu)

“But I still need Illuna to watch over them, or they’ll start to go off in strange directions. Especially Shii, Rei, Rui, and Ro, they always try to add their originality to the dishes.” (Layla)

After Lefi’s words, Lyuu and Layla added.

“Kaka, when that happens, Enne and the others start working with Shii and the others, rather than stopping them, surprisingly. They will then start doing weird things in all seriousness, to which Illuna will giggle and say, ‘Oh, my… these girls are…’” (Lefi)

I could easily imagine just the way it would go down.

Also, Enne often accompanied me out, so she might not have as much time to practice cooking as the other kids… No, she’s better than anyone else including the adult group at just cutting, so if they divide up the responsibilities, there would be no problem.

This made me wonder if I should leave Enne at home a little more than usual, while taking Rir with me instead or something.

If I do that, she might get angry herself, saying “…Enne is Master’s weapon, so take me with you…”

“Well…it might be time to stop calling them little girls…” (Lefi)

“Yes. they may look like little girls, but they are no longer children.” (Layla)

Not a group of little girls, but a group of girls, huh?

I understood Illuna was growing taller and more mature mentally.

Since each race had a different lifespan and therefore grew up differently in this world, it wouldn’t make much sense to think of her by the age standard of my previous life, but well, she would only be around the age of an elementary school graduate or so in my previous life.

Shii, Enne, and the Wraith Girls, well, they didn’t look any different from Illuna, but I guess they have grown up, just like her.

From my point of view, these girls were acting their age as young children, but I was sure that they had experienced many things and refined their sense in ways that adults did not know.

I was deeply moved by this.

“We, too, have moved up from being girls to being [wives] and [Mothers]! We have to learn to act accordingly.” (Lyuu)

“Well, it’s something that comes naturally to us, and we don’t have to be so uptight about it, do we? You know, our husband is as childish as Illuna and the others.” (Lefi)

“Oh, someone with a mentality not so different from mine is saying something like that?” (Yuki)

“As a wife and mother, I’m a little worried if I can do it well, but I can take care of it.” (Lyuu)

“Right, we’re more worried about you, Yuki being worried about us…” (Lefi)

“Same for me.” (Lyuu)

“Me as well” (Layla)

***

The food was eventually ready, and Illuna and the others started to bring it over to us.

Except for the Wraith Girls, who did not eat any food, the food for seven people was quite a lot, so I tried to help them carry it over, but they asked me to sit down.

I did as I was told, and the girls carefully went back and forth to set the meals they cooked on the table – and then the preparations were over.

The dinner lineup consisted of miso soup, white rice, stir-fried vegetables, cold yakisoba, and kinpira gobo (fried burdock root).

“Oh…! That looks really good!” (Yuki)

I knew that it was a little late for this, but rice was the staple food in my family because of my influence.

We ate all sorts of things, but basically, we mostly cooked dishes that used rice.

But with all these Japanese-style items…they probably prepared what I liked.

As a former Japanese, I naturally liked Japanese food.

“All right, let’s eat! Itadakimasu!” (Yuki)

[Itadakimasu!]

We said this in unison and started eating our dinner.

It was delicious.

The seasoning was perfect, the slices were not uneven, and it was just plain delicious.

If I didn’t know these kids had made it, I would have thought someone from the adult group had made it.

“It’s soooo good. Seriously.” (Yuki)

At my words, the girls looked at each other and smiled, satisfied and happy, as if the prank had been a success.