"I've been waiting for your return, Your Majesty." General Orchidea bowed to the daemon entering the great hall of the Palace of Shadows.
"Don't look at me like that, Octaviam, I haven't been away that long." The daemon king chuckled.
"If you say so." General Orchidea shrugged. "I've collected the names you asked for." The daemon noted as he watched his master walk to his throne.
"Thank you." The daemon king nodded. "Hmm... Less than I expected, but more than it should be." He shook his head. "Has anything interesting happened since I last saw you?" The next question came, but by then its questioner had already sat on his throne and started reading the list of names.
"Not really. Svihák summoned me to the human world. I brought a daemon back from there, nothing else exciting. The transparents, as I'm sure you know, are doing their job. The smaller monsters are being kept under surveillance for now. The demons are still moving around, although they've been suspiciously quiet since the last incident." The General pondered. "As for the daimons. They're rebelling as usual." The daimon born from a transparent shrugged.
"I didn't expect anything else from them." The daimon king leaned back in his chair.
"How is your alliance?" Octavian asked suddenly, causing Qing Xinxi to laugh at himself. Octavian Hideki was the only daimon in the Shadow World who could speak so directly to the daimon king; if another daimon had tried the same thing, he would have been dead after the first word.
"I hardly notice." The daimon king confessed. "The boy is interesting. Better than anyone in a long time, but he can keep me out of his thoughts quite skillfully. However, what is delayed is not gone. Sooner or later he will break. He only has to call me once and if he does, I will feel him much easier. I would like to know what humans are like, because they are so strange when they get here, aren't they, Octavian?" He turned to his friend and right hand with a smile.
"Yes." General Orchidea rolled his eyes. The daimon never understood what his master found so fascinating about humans, if someone had asked him, he would have said that most of humanity were not worth dealing with, there were few kind-hearted people among them but since they are so fragile, they die easily.
"Is there anything else outstanding that I should know about?" The daimon king asked the question, and General Orchidea thought about it.
"Well, maybe it's that the ghosts have been getting more and more aggressive lately." The daimon shrugged.
"The ghosts are not my responsibility. That's why the ghost king exists, although they were more afraid of the first one, and the second one repels them. At least this third one can do something with them." The daimon king grimaced.
"True, but we haven't seen him for almost twenty years." Octavian held his chin in one hand.
"He'll show up sooner or later, and if he doesn't, the other one will take care of them." The daimon king shrugged. "We don't have to deal with ghosts. Demons and daimons are more important. Even the living can deal with ghosts. Not sure about higher-level beings. Our job is to maintain peace between the two worlds." The man explained.
"I know, you've said it enough times." General Orchidea sighed.
"As for the daimons." The daimon king's gaze became serious. "Hideki, call the princes together. I have a talk with them." He announced, which made General Orchidea salute him and then hurry away.
The daimon princes are the third highest level in the Shadow World hierarchy, directly under Octavian Hideki, and above him is only Daimon King Qing Xinxi. Their power far exceeds that of the average daimons, but they are more closely tied to the Shadow World than their peers and cannot cross over to the living without a host. Unlike General Orchidea and Qing Xinxi, who are able to leave the Shadow World on their own.
However, summoning the daimon princes is not as big a task as one might imagine. Usually, thanks to the transparents, the matter is resolved in a matter of seconds. After all, transparents can appear in many places at once and deliver messages. That may be why, shortly after General Orchidea left the great hall of the Palace of Shadows, he returned with fourteen daimons in his wake.
The fourteen daimon princes all had unique features, some smaller, some larger, some human-like, and some animal-like. However, when they entered the great hall, they all bowed to the daimon king, who only returned their greeting with a nod. When General Orchidea stepped to his right, he began to speak.
"i guess you are all curious as to why you were called here." Qing Xinxi looked at the faces. "As you know, the daimons are starting to lose control of themselves. If I remember correctly, I ordered you to keep the mobs under your control, right?" The king asked, to which he only received murmurs of approval in response. "Then!" He roared, silencing the daimons. "Why are they rebelling?" The previously smiling face grimaced.
"Your Majesty, we will do our best." One of the daimon princes, who looked more like an animal, began to speak.
"It seems that is not enough!" Qing Xinxi growled at the daimon prince. "I am trying to control the mobs that you let run free, but there are more and more of them and I cannot be everywhere at once. I suggest that you pull yourself together and start doing your work before I get tired of the situation and decide to elect new princes!' The daimon king threatened those present and although most of them lowered their heads in shame, in some of them the scolding only ignited anger.
"You cannot replace us!" One of the daimon princes who looked like a human spoke, although saying he looked like a human was perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, he was more like a shadow of a human than a human himself, and his red eyes sparkled at that moment. "We are stronger than you!"
"Look there..." The daimon king slowly tilted his head to the side. "Someone is brave. Why would you be stronger than me?" He asked the question and grinned.
"We don't need to make a contract with a human." The shadow figure grimaced, and several people started whispering in surprise. "We are not a transparent like you!" Poison dripped from the words of the daimon prince who appeared as a shadow figure.
However, before he could say anything more, the room was flooded with a flood of snow-white flowers, which wounded the bodies of every daimon prince present. The daimon king was in front of the shadow figure in an instant and pressed one hand to his throat, while the daimon prince began to gasp for air.
"You will receive a warning." He whispered in an icy voice. "One more like this and I will kill you. Believe me, it will not be difficult for me to remind you why I am the daimon king." He knocked the daimon prince who appeared as a shadow to the ground, then turned on his heel and waved a hand that made the flowers disappear. "That's all I wanted. Regulate your daimons. You can leave!" He announced, which was enough for the daimon princes to leave the Palace of Shadows one after another. "Octavian, if anyone is looking for me, you know what to do. I will retreat for a while."
"Yes, your majesty." The daimon bowed, then watched as his leader lelf the room.