It was on an otherwise uneventful spring morning that the relatively young Devil Princess, Cattleya Vaughn, suddenly came to the realisation that she was bored. Extremely bored.
At first, she assumed it was temporary, confident that, as always, she would think of something eventually.
But after spending several hours lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling and cycling through thoughts, she had to accept the bitter truth: she had absolutely nothing to do.
Hoping to shake the feeling, she got off her bed and decided to take a stroll through the unnecessarily massive royal castle in search of anything that might catch her attention.
Unfortunately, even after exploring the eastern tower, wandering down to the southern wing, and making her way through every other tower in the castle, she found nothing even remotely interesting.
Disappointed, she made her way back toward her room, only to run into the Deadly Sin Devil Butler, Belphegor, standing at the main entrance of the eastern tower.
As always, she leapt towards him with arms wide open for a hug. As always, he stepped aside mid-air, caught her, and gently placed her back on the ground.
This time, however, something was different. His eyes were shut for some reason. Curious, she tilted her head and asked,
"Uncle Bel, why are your eyes closed?"
Heaving a tired sigh, Belphegor responded with his eyes still closed, motioning to the nearby maids to approach.
"I received word that the princess was seen walking around in an... unbecoming state of appearance. Also, my name is Belphegor, not Bel."
Hearing his reply, Cattleya looked down at herself and only then realised she was still dressed in a semi-transparent negligee, with a loosely draped housecoat thrown over it.
Even without any charm-enhancing abilities, Cattleya was a stunning woman with a voluptuous figure; her natural beauty and allure were exceptional. So it came as no surprise that the servants she passed during her stroll, especially the male ones, had struggled to maintain proper eye contact.
Her outfit was clearly far more revealing than it should have been.
Letting out a knowing laugh, she turned and walked back toward her room, the maids following closely behind. They prepared a bath for her and assisted with her attire afterwards.
Once she was dressed, she decided to have a meal, despite having no real need for one.
As a Deity Realm Archdevil, Cattleya was a being capable of self-sustenance. She could go without food for hundreds or even thousands of years without suffering any negative effects.
Yet, she still indulged in a lavish meal, unsurprisingly extravagant.
As she ate, she gave some thought to how best to deal with her lingering boredom, and after a while, she eventually decided to ask Belphegor for suggestions.
She set down her cutlery and cast a simple short-distance space magic spell—Blink—to teleport to Belphegor's location outside the room, hoping to catch him off guard.
"Tch... Not even a slight reaction."
It was only after hearing her words that Belphegor realised she had meant to startle him. He sighed softly and responded,
"I had already sensed your magic power, so I could predict where you'd appear."
"What's with you Pure-Blooded devils and weird sixth senses? I was sure I concealed my magic perfectly. Maybe I should work on a spell that can fool all of you, not just Dad."
Belphegor immediately noticed where her train of thought was heading, a scenario in which she used him as a test subject for a new spell, and decided to cut it off before it went any further.
"Princess, do you need me for something?"
"I'm bored and have nothing to do. Suggest somewhere I can cure my boredom, preferably somewhere that doesn't require fighting. That's boring too."
Fortunately, his deflection worked, as Cattleya remembered the actual reason she had approached him. Belphegor only shook his head lightly before retrieving a card from his subspace and handing it to her.
"You can check out this bar in the Neutral Zone. There's a built-in casino, so you'll definitely find something to entertain yourself with. Try their drinks first, though. They're quite satisfactory."
"Thanks, Uncle Bel."
"You're welcome, Princess. Please walk properly. And my name is Belphegor, not Bel."
◇ ◇ ◇
The Neutral Zone.
That was the name given to a particular cluster of universes. Just as galaxies formed clusters, so too did universes.
In this case, six universes, each ruled by members of the dwarven race, had formed an alliance, collectively declaring their cluster a Neutral Zone and asserting that no hostilities, whether from major or minor powers, would be tolerated within their territory.
Initially, the declaration wasn't well-received. However, the dwarves were renowned for their transcendent forging abilities, capable of producing some of the finest weapons and artifacts in existence.
Many pantheons and their armies relied heavily on equipment forged by dwarven hands, and the dwarves cleverly used that reliance to their advantage.
They declared that anyone who violated the laws of their territory would be cut off from acquiring any weapons or artifacts forged by them. Though many were reluctant, this threat forced even the most vocal opponents to begrudgingly recognise the dwarven cluster as a Neutral Zone.
This was also due to the fact that while some pantheons had their own blacksmith gods or equivalents, none could compare to the finest of the dwarven deities in skill or precision.
Still, the dwarves knew that relying solely on trade restrictions wouldn't be enough to secure their claim. So, they pushed further, honing their already formidable physical prowess and deepening their mastery over the laws of earth and fire, arming themselves with enough strength to repel any who dared challenge their decree.
As Cattleya made her way toward the Drifters' headquarters on the planet Aeturn, she found herself reflecting on everything she knew about the Neutral Zone.
Rather than travelling alone, she chose to make use of their transport services.
Teleportation magic that could move someone across universes was far beyond the capabilities of the young Cattleya, and given that she never truly possessed a high affinity for the spatial attribute, she couldn't say for certain that she would ever be skilled at it in the future.
Even if she somehow managed to perform such a feat, traversing a distance of hundreds of billions of light-years using spatial magic would consume nearly all of her energy and leave her in a state of temporary vulnerability, which she would rather avoid.
The Drifter race, by contrast, was known for an unmatched level of mastery over all forms of space attribute magic, skills, and techniques.
Circulating rumours claimed that each Drifter was born with an innately high comprehension of spatial attribute laws, enabling them to perform even the most complex teleportation spells from a young age.
Later research revealed that the real source of their overwhelming mastery was their racial trait. Just as humans instinctively learned to use their limbs as they aged, Drifters instinctively learned to manipulate space.
Capitalising on this natural ability, the Drifters established a thriving inter-universal business transporting people and items across vast distances in exchange for currency, rare stones, or other valuables.
Their growing influence across numerous universes soon led to various masters compelling them to swear oaths of neutrality in wartime, as the strategic implications of the Drifters picking a side would be devastating for the opposition.
In exchange, the Drifters requested protection from attacks, knowing that some factions might attempt to eliminate them simply to prevent the risk of them aiding their enemies.
Of course, with quintillions upon quintillions of Drifters in existence, binding them all under such an oath was impossible, meaning there were always some who operated behind the scenes during wars and conflicts.
The moment she arrived at their headquarters, the leader of all the Hell Universe's drifters, a high-drifter named Larry, came out to personally receive her. He directed her to another high-drifter who wasn't as busy and had them arrange her transport to the Neutral Zone.
After donning a modest disguise, she handed over the coordinates for her destination, and the high-drifter swiftly activated his spatial magic, allowing them to reach one of the six universes in the neutral zone, Bracken, within a day.
Bracken was a universe ruled by a dwarven tribe known as the 'Morass'. Like other dwarves, they had a deep mastery over the universal laws of fire and earth, but even among the dwarves, famous for their exceptional liquor, the Morass were considered the best of the best, at least within the neutral zone.
The bar Belphegor had recommended was one of the more well-known spots in the Morass tribe's capital world, Verchester. It was a hybrid establishment, a casino and bar combined, called Golden Glass.
Since it was still daytime, the bar section, despite its considerable size, only had a small number of patrons: a few seated at various tables, and one solitary customer at the counter out on the building's balcony.
Thanks to the excellent soundproofing, the noise from the thousands of visitors inside the casino portion didn't reach the bar-only area.
She took a seat beside the hooded figure at the balcony counter, ordered a drink, and then casually started a conversation in a manner most would probably consider rude.
"Yo! Didn't expect to meet someone reeking of death around here."
"Didn't expect to run into a royal devil either."
The hooded man replied once he realised she was talking to him, prompting her to offer a light round of applause in response to his accurate guess regarding her identity.
Notably, Cattleya was currently in disguise, so her hair and eyes were both a plain brown. Her face was also veiled by recognition inhibition magic, so although her features were visible, anyone who looked away would immediately forget what she looked like, and their minds would never associate her with 'Archdevil Cattleya'.
Clearly, this man possessed enough power to see through all of it.
"Oh? Since we're playing the identity game, let me give it a shot," Cattleya said, taking a sip from her drink as soon as it was set down.
"So, you're definitely a god. The divinity rolling off you stings a bit, even if you're trying to suppress it.
You've gotta be one of the Main Entities in your universe. As for your Authorities, you should be a god of death, so, death, souls, darkness… and you've got the scent of a hellhound on you."
The man chuckled lightly after her analysis, taking a sip of his drink before responding.
"You got most of it right, but you missed a couple of things."
"Huh? Which ones?"
"The aspect I'm in charge of. While I do have some control over death, it isn't exactly my domain, per se.
That actually belongs to my second-in-command, who's probably cursing me out right now for dumping my duties on him and wandering off somewhere else.
Maybe I should get him a souvenir."
He murmured the last part more to himself, casting a glance toward a small souvenir stall at the far end of the bar hall.
"What else?" Cattleya asked.
"I'm also not one of my universe's main entities, even though I'm stronger than... almost all of them, aside from my younger brother. Not that I'd lose to him easily in a fight, though," the man replied.
He didn't strike her as the talkative sort, so Cattleya was slightly surprised he was indulging her this much.
Still, the contents of his reply made her shake her head in mild disappointment.
"So they made weaker gods the main entities and left the stronger ones out? Doesn't sound like the wisest decision to me."
"That was partly on me. I'm not exactly good at drawing lots. Especially not when it's rigged for me to lose."
"Who rigged it?"
"My younger brother."
He ordered another drink, for both himself and Cattleya, before continuing.
"I still have more than he does, though, one of those things being money. I am the god of wealth, after all."
"Whoa! So you're, like, the richest in your pantheon?"
"Yes."
"Now I really feel like coming over. I wanna see that Hellhound too."
Cattleya was a dog person, and she even had a pet Hellhound of her own.
She had no idea what universe he was from since he had obscured every aspect of his appearance using magic even stronger than hers, and trying to guess based on what little she could see probably wouldn't give her the right answer. That only made the thought of visiting an unknown universe more exciting.
Unfortunately, his next words quickly doused that excitement.
"As much as I'd like to welcome you, I don't really want my wife thinking I'm cheating on her. She tends to get suspicious in situations like this.
She once turned a nymph I fancied into a plant."
At that, Cattleya froze with her drink halfway to her lips and raised an eyebrow.
'Dude, you just gave away your identity.'
Though she had a pretty good idea of who he likely was, she didn't mention it and kept the conversation on track.
"Must be tough being a married man, huh? So what are you doing here anyway?"
She asked this while silently agreeing with Belphegor's earlier take on the drinks. It was a bit strange how this hooded god was so willing to talk about himself despite them just meeting, especially considering she was a devil, a race fundamentally at odds with gods, but she just chalked it up to him being unusually friendly, despite what his appearance would suggest.
"I was bored and I had a lot of things to do, so I figured I'd come out for a drink."
"You were bored because you had a lot of things to do? How does that make sense?"
"Holding a position in a pantheon comes with responsibilities. Tons of them.
Especially when your domain happens to be one without which your universe's operational system would fall apart. Doing the same cycle of tasks over and over again for tens of thousands of years gets dull, eventually."
He shook his head as he spoke, a troubled look forming on his face as he thought about how he'd have to return to that routine soon enough.
"I can relate. I only recently became a main entity, and I'm already tired of it. I dumped most of the lower-priority tasks on my brother. He always complains, but he does them anyway," Cattleya said as she downed her drink in one gulp.
She set the glass aside and stood up, suggesting they check out the casino section. He followed suit, finishing his drinks before walking beside her as they continued chatting.
"Oh, right, you haven't told me your name yet. I'm Cattleya, by the way. Though you probably already knew that," she added, casually eyeing the inhibition magic rune etched into his hood.
She could try to forcefully see through it if she wanted to, but chose not to since she wasn't sure of her success in doing so without him noticing.
She could have attempted to see through it by force if she really wanted to, but she decided against it, uncertain whether she could succeed without him noticing.
"That's true. Well, since you enjoy guessing, I'll give you a few hints. They might not make much sense, but considering what I've already told you, someone like you should be able to piece it together."
"They don't make sense? How am I supposed to guess anything with clues that don't even make sense?"
She looked at him, puzzled, but he only chuckled at her reaction before responding.
"You'll see, somehow.
I have two brothers. One loves high places, and though I keep hoping he gets struck by lightning, he's unfortunately immune to it.
The other apparently likes swimming a lot more than I thought, and sometimes I wish he'd just drown, but then again, a fish can't exactly drown in water."
Hearing his words immediately confirmed her earlier guess.
"Okay, so you're a god of darkness and wealth who got his position by drawing rigged lots. Your second-in-command governs death, and your two brothers control lightning and water, respectively.
With all that, it would've been weirder if I couldn't figure out who you are. That story about your wife turning someone into a plant really sealed it. It's pretty popular.
Though I have to say, the rumours don't do you justice."
"They really don't. I've never understood why people think I'm some kind of evil god or personification of death. One rumour even claimed I torture souls for fun. Why in the Cosmos would I do something so tasteless and disturbing?!"
Cattleya laughed at the grumbling god and offered a suggestion.
"If you don't want people to see you that way, then start by changing your appearance. You look way too 'dark.'"
"Huh? I already did that, though. My sister said I looked dull, so I brightened things up," he replied, looking down at himself.
"Well, I can see it wasn't much. Do it again. I'll help you, after we're done gambling, that is."
With that, she grabbed his hand and pulled him into the noisy casino.