As I slowly awoke from the void after I had finished training with the Pale King and the Nightmare King, I felt something shaking my entire body.
Opening my eyes, I saw my sister Charlie on top of me, trying her best to wake me up.
"Stygian! Today's the day, the day! Our last night as students!" Charlie said excitedly, a gigantic smile on her face.
"I know. Now would you please get off me?" I said, staring at her on my bed.
"Oops, sorry," she said, quickly jumping off and landing on the floor.
Getting up from my bed and having a better look at Charlie, she was already wearing her red dress for the prom tonight.
"Charlie, you do realize the event's going to start at night, right?"
"I know! But I just got to be ready! Seviathan's going to be picking me up later, so I gotta look my best!"
Ah, Seviathan. I never really liked him — there was always something fishy going on with him, but I never got any hard proof regarding him.
So I just let Charlie and the asshole be.
"Oh, speaking of which, who are you going to go with? You know I have a friend who's also really tall and—"
I cut Charlie off by placing a finger to silence her.
"Again with this, Charlie? I'm fine going alone. I don't really need a date."
Charlie pouted and spoke once more.
"Ahh, come on! It's one night — can't you get someone to come? For me?" she said, trying to use puppy-dog eyes to convince me.
"I'll think about it, but for now I have business to take care of."
Charlie, pouting once more, only stared at me defiantly.
Sighing, I got up from bed and almost immediately two maids began entering my room.
The maids had pale faces and dark black eyes. These maids had been exposed to the Pale Bloom a few years back and have since become my personal servants to avoid any more incidents like this happening.
They began removing my nightwear and started cleaning my body as I stood in the room. Charlie only watched, continuing to pout.
"I know how much this night means to you, Charlie, and I promise if I ever think of anyone to bring, I'll bring them along, ok?" I said.
Charlie simply raised her eyebrow and walked off.
After Charlie had left, the maids finally finished cleaning me and began to place my armor around me. They moved with an almost machine-like precision ever since they became like this, and in no time I was fully clothed.
Once they had finished putting it on, they gave a quick bow and began cleaning my room.
Walking out, I began my journey towards the dining hall where Charlie and Dad were eating pancakes and waffles.
"Good morning, son! Come! We have pancakes!" he said, holding up his pancakes.
"Thank you," I said, grabbing a handful of pancakes and sitting down at the table across from them.
As we ate, Charlie began talking with Dad about the prom, and I swear I heard something about them getting me a date. I couldn't quite hear who or what they had in mind, but I didn't really care too much.
After finishing breakfast, I said goodbye and began walking towards the castle's main office.
The castle paperwork has been my job ever since I became the heir to Hell. It wasn't all that difficult, just a bit confusing at first. The main problems are always concerning the sinners in the Pride Ring and how they're causing a commotion again in that district.
It wasn't too much of a problem since it's either just another false report or already being dealt with by the overlords in charge of that area.
No — the main problem I'm currently dealing with is the other rings. Most of Hell's demons aren't really cooperative, especially the ones in the Greed Ring.
But I managed to stabilize most of the rings since they were much more cooperative and willing to listen when given the right incentive.
The Wrath Ring, since most of the area is just one big farmland, has been producing food to supply the rest of Hell. Helping this is Maylin's family.
By sponsoring them and sending a few guards to protect them, the imps of Wrath have been more than happy to farm and tend to livestock since they didn't have to worry about getting raided anymore.
The Sloth Ring, though a bit slow, has been studying and improving the medicine for all of Hell to use. The only condition they wanted was to have a steady supply of the Pale Bloom. At first I was quite confused why they wanted such a dangerous flower to be anywhere near them, since most of the doctors and scientists were low-ranking demons.
But to my surprise, they found multiple different use cases for the flowers — using it for antidepressants, healing properties, and even for smoking like a cigarette.
I didn't really stop this since the pros outweigh the cons.
Now, most of the other rings had something to offer, but it mostly boiled down to entertainment.
I didn't have much use for this, so I just allowed their respective sins to do as they pleased.
---
After finishing up the last of the paperwork, I looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it was already time for lunch.
I didn't really have time for it since I was supposed to be meeting with some up-and-coming overlord.
I couldn't quite remember his name, but he had a rather large boxy head. So, cleaning up my station, I wasted no time and opened a rift in space towards the meeting hall.
As I stepped through the rift, I quickly saw the overlord sitting on one of the chairs.
He wore a brown vest and had a CRT television for a head. He wore a confident smile and looked rather self-assured.
"Ah, Your Highness! It is such an honor to finally meet you," he said, standing up and giving me a bow.
"Pleasure's all mine," I said, sitting down across from him.
"Thank you, Your Highnesses. Allow me to introduce myself once more — my name is Vox, CEO of Voxtek."
"Alright, Vox. Tell me why you arranged this meeting. I'm quite busy," I said, looking him straight in the eye.
"Of course! Well, allow me to introduce to you!" He grabbed a briefcase from underneath the table and opened it. "The new Voxtek cellular phone — no more old and clunky rotary phones that take too long to call someone. With the next Voxtek phone, you'll be able to call and message anyone from anywhere at any time," he said, showing off a rather large phone.
Snapping my fingers, guards suddenly appeared behind him. This shocked Vox for a second before he quickly composed himself.
The guards grabbed the phone out of his hands and gave it to me.
Looking at the device, it looked like an old-school phone that could only send messages and call people. How he developed it so quickly was... interesting.
Placing the brick of a phone down, I spoke once more.
"Tell me, Vox — what do you want to get out of all of this?"
"Well, Your Highness, as you know, Voxtek is one of Hell's leading sources of—" I cut him off.
"Yes, yes. Enough with the speech. Just tell me what you want."
Vox was a bit dumbfounded by me cutting him off in his speech but quickly spoke once more.
"Well, Your Highness, I would like to have your permission in building multiple cell towers to help the growth of the product and Hell. With better communication, Hell will grow much faster and more efficiently," he said with a smile.
Looking at the product on the table, I thought about what to do with it and got a bright idea.
"Alright, Vox. I accept your proposal."
"Fuck yeah!"
"In the condition that all Voxtek technology and blueprints be handed to the royal family for personal use."
"What!?" he said, slamming his hands on the table and his fingers digging into it.
The guards quickly surrounded him and began pointing spears at him. Raising my hand, the guards stopped and returned to their posts like nothing had happened.
"Allow me to elaborate more. You need only to submit the designs and schematics for any previous and future products of Voxtek and any of its sister companies. Furthermore, Voxtek shall still own the rights to said products but only have jurisdiction in the Pride Ring. Does that sound more fair?"
Vox, thinking it through, took a deep breath and looked at me with a smile.
"It's a deal, Your Highness."
With that done, I got up from my chair and walked out of the meeting hall.
---
Today was a big day not just for Charlie but for me, because today is the day I'm finally completing my knight training.
I've learned a lot of things from Master Sparda — the different styles and techniques he created, like Royal Guard, Trickster, Swordmaster, Gunslinger, and my favorite, the Dark Slayer fighting style.
Reaching my destination, I saw Master standing in the middle of the training grounds with his sword planters firmly in the ground.
Walking closer, he noticed me and had a wide smile on his face. He raised his sword and got ready.
"Let's see if you're ready, boy," he said, getting into a stance.
Removing my armor and summoning my now much longer nail to accommodate for my size, I took my stance.
"Ready to finally beat you, old man."