I love time travel the most!

A few seconds later—

"Hmm, I see. So that man over there saw through my true form from the start? Those [eyes] are rather mysterious. But how should I put it, it's the presence of beings of the same type that makes me feel uneasy."

Barnier saw through Darkness's heart and found the reason why he was not afraid or timid.

While praising Kobayashi, they also bluntly revealed their hostility.

In general novels, comics, or anime, the most taboo thing is the overlap of characters, or rather, the overlap of cute traits.

Even the great demon Barnier was no exception.

Kobayashi laughed and said, "Could it be that the Duke of Hell and the Demon King's army officers are like bandits, able to occupy other people's dungeons at will?"

"Um???"

Barnier was completely bewildered.

Before he could ask any questions, a contract was laid out in front of him.

“Please look at this contract carefully. This dungeon was originally built by a lich named Gil, and after his ascension, he transferred ownership of the dungeon to me. In other words, Mr. Barnil, the Demon King's military officer and the Duke of Hell who commands demons, you are now occupying my territory.”

"What?! How could this be?! How could this happen?!"

Barnier quickly picked up the contract, and when he saw that the beneficiary was Kobayashi, he immediately covered his head with his hands, looking as if he couldn't accept it.

This behavior frightened Darkness.

"Hey, Kobayashi, what's wrong with him...?"

"It's probably jealousy. You see, it's like someone suddenly receiving a castle as a gift from someone else in the third ring of the capital. Others who consider this their life's dream will naturally find it unacceptable and resent that such a person isn't themselves."

"how could it be possible."

Darkness rolled her eyes at him.

Xiaolin shrugged, surprised that no one believed him when he told the truth.

Back when Aqua came to purify the area, he had mentioned this to Gil. At the time, Gil was puzzled that Kobayashi would want ownership of the dungeon, but he eventually agreed and signed a ownership contract. Anyway, he was going to ascend to heaven, so he wouldn't need the dungeon at all.

Kobayashi's decision wasn't impulsive; he had planned it for a long time.

After all, Banir's dream was to build the world's largest dungeon and become the boss at the bottom, so that when the hero finally defeated him and opened the treasure chest behind him, which should have been full of treasures but only contained a note mocking the hero, he would experience the ultimate negative emotions and die.

That's why he specifically sought to acquire ownership of this underground city.

Barnier is fully entitled to say to Kobayashi:

—Damn it, you tricked me!

Although Barnier's current crazy behavior makes him seem like he's just clowning around, Daknis still doesn't let his guard down.

The title of "Demon King's Army Officer" is no joke; if they were to launch an attack...

"I won't do that."

"……what?"

"We will not launch an attack."

Barnier has recovered.

The demon, capable of seeing into people's hearts, saw through the female knight's inner thoughts.

This only made Darkness more panicked.

Barnier, completely unconcerned about the tense female knight, regained his composure and remained seated cross-legged, saying:

"Calm down. I didn't come here to start a fight with you. It's because the Demon King asked me to investigate something. Also, I have something to ask that useless shopkeeper in Axel who has such a strange talent: the more he works, the poorer he gets."

Upon hearing this, Darkness involuntarily looked at Kobayashi.

"Ah, he's talking about Wiz, that's right."

"So you knew all along."

Kobayashi's answer was confirmed by Barnier.

Therefore, the two sides temporarily ceased hostilities.

Banir then began to explain: "First of all, although he is called a cadre of the Demon King's army, he is just helping to maintain the castle's barrier at the request of that Demon King guy. To put it bluntly, he is just a figurehead."

"Got it, just like Wiz."

"Oh dear, I didn't expect that idiot store manager would actually tell everyone about this."

Xiaolin's answer surprised him somewhat.

However, none of these are of great importance.

To prove his harmlessness, he said again, "We are demons, and to demons, the negative emotions emanating from humans are our sustenance. Therefore, we will not do anything foolish to harm or maim you. On the contrary, whenever a human is born, we happily run around the courtyard."

"...I always felt like I was being treated like livestock."

Xiaolin made a slight complaint.

On that day, humanity recalled the fear of being dominated by giants (demons).

"Please wait a moment!"

Darkness suddenly interrupted the conversation.

Under their gazes, the female knight asked, "Generally speaking, if you want to express negative emotions, shouldn't you actively harm others?"

"No, that's not how it is. For example..."

Barnier glanced at Darkness, and seeing her somewhat uncomfortable expression, said, "Girl who's worried about being seen in the bathroom but keeps hoping to be eaten, have those men over there noticed your well-defined abs? I don't know why you're so wary of me, but I'd still like to kindly suggest that you don't overdo your workouts."

"Abdomen, abs...abs! How dare you say that...!" Darkness made a move to draw his longsword and slash at him.

Kobayashi hugged her from behind, enduring the friction of his cold armor as he said, "Calm down, Darkness. The other party is clearly trying to provoke you into having negative emotions. Besides, didn't I tell you, Darkness, you're very feminine, and I like that."

"Even if that's the case..."

The female knight blushed and her body went limp.

Seeing this, Barnier stroked his chin and said, "I see, so it's gotten to that point. You could have eaten her up at any time, but you didn't make a move. Is it because you didn't have the chance, or are you deliberately keeping her hanging? This girl's hobbies are really peculiar; even we don't quite understand them."

What he said was very ambiguous, but Darkness stopped making any more moves.

"As you can see, negative emotions, in fact, come in hundreds of varieties, from high to low. Each demon has a different taste and different preferences. Some demons enjoy human fear and despair, while others, like us, like to transform into stunningly beautiful women to get close to men, do everything in their power to make them fall in love with us, and then reveal their true colors and say, 'What a pity, it's actually me!' and then savor the emotions of the blood and tears they shed."

This guy is a complete devil!

If that were actually done, the person who was tricked would probably be so ashamed and indignant that they would choose to commit suicide.

Wait a minute.

Xiaolin suddenly thought of a question.

"What would you do if that person said, 'Even so, it's okay'?"

"……Aha?"

"What I mean is, even if you're a demon, even if you're outwardly a man, what would you do if that person said I could do it?"

"Uh--"

Barnier remained silent.

Kobayashi could clearly sense that the Duke of Hell, who commanded the demons, had lost his mind; he obviously hadn't expected such a bizarre person to exist.

"No, no, no, how could such a person exist?"

"……hehe."

Barnier shook his head in denial, to which Kobayashi responded with a smile. It seemed the other party underestimated human sexuality; some people are capable of even just one hole, let alone female-to-male transformations. In a way, this only aroused more of his excitement.

As Barnier peeked into Kobayashi's thoughts and his expression grew increasingly strange and distorted, Kobayashi said to him, "Mr. Barnier, how about we make a deal?"

"Oh ho, a deal?"

The Demon King's army officer, the Duke of Hell who commands demons, is quite interested in Kobayashi's proposal.

Chapter 278 Mr. Barnier, you don't want to either?

According to his account, Banir seemed to have been begged by the Demon King to come here in order to investigate who was the person who defeated the Headless Horseman Beldia.

"Just as we were teasing the Demon King's subordinates and consuming their negative emotions, that guy said something like, 'Don't stay in my castle and bully my subordinates. Go and do some work occasionally.' And that's how I got asked to do that."

Barnier chuckled, not knowing why, but he could always smell a familiar scent on him. Indeed, it was the scent of a particularly troublesome and problematic child.

He enjoys feelings that make people shy, or as he puts it, sticky negative emotions; in any case, he doesn't like being around such a devil.

Wiz is still better.

"You seem to be thinking about something unpleasant."

"How could that be? You've misunderstood."

"You should understand that we can see into people's hearts."

"……sorry."

Kobayashi simply admitted his mistake.

Barnier is, after all, a friendly unit. If he angers the other party, he'll inevitably suffer. With his current strength, it's absolutely impossible for him to defeat the Duke of Hell, who is even stronger than the Demon King.

"Never mind, I know I'm not very likable."

Ha, you know that too.

Under Kobayashi's strange gaze, Barnier continued, "I thought I could visit an old friend who lives in this town, so I took on this investigation job. When I passed by, I discovered this dungeon that no one was using, and thinking it was perfect, I moved in without permission."

What about the investigation?

Where is my old friend?

You really do whatever you want.

Kobayashi didn't say it aloud, but her eyes were already screaming.

Barnier grinned and said, "In that case, let's get to work."

"...Please don't."

Let's forget it. If I provoke him any further, he might really start to take things seriously.