Wardrobe

Villager: Lord Belphegor

Walking through town, you see a house with a strange Dutch Angel Dragon sitting on a bench swing outside, legs crossed and for all intents and purposes staring out into space. After a moment, he seems to notice you staring, and gets a look of annoyance on his face.

"What? Have you never seen a demon before? Mortals these days, I swear..."

"Oh, so you knew I was a demon already? Good, at least you still have some brain cells left in that fragile head of yours."

The demon uncrosses his legs, before sitting up and giving you a wan look.

"The name's Lord Belphegor. You'd best remember it."

"Yes, Lord. Honestly. What, do I need to be sitting on a throne of blood and bone, in a foreboding castle of black stone lit by unearthly torches in, say, the middle of a nasty thunderstorm or such to be a demon of high standing?"

"...And now you want to know what I'm doing out here. Of course you do. Come to stop the big, bad demon from corrupting these poor, innocent villagers, and razing this tiny island out in the middle of nowhere for his own pleasure?"

Belphegor scoffs.

"Please. As if I would raze the place to the ground. I have a house here, and its where I keep all my stuff. I like my stuff, ergo I have a vested interest in keeping the place intact. A lot of it's here in my house, but I have a second one over there - on my mini island, you see there?"

You turn to look, and sure enough, there is a sub-island not too far from shore, with the only building on it being a house attached to a large storehouse, and a sign reading 'Belphegor Island'.

"Got a little favor from the resident island spirit. Do try not to piss him off, will you? I'd rather not go through another earthquake again."

"Honestly, what is with you mortals and stereotypes? Yes, I could keep all my things in a mighty fortress befitting my status, and I do have one of those, but why store all my things there when there's this perfectly out of the way island here? Please do keep up."

"Why haven't I picked an abandoned island in that case? Hmpf. Look around you, mortal. What do you see?"

Confused, you do as he asks. All you see are people going about their day; kids running around screaming, warriors going to and from the battlefields, Tienyo and Pikabolt chasing after an escaped beta bug, Faolan and Camellia racing, Morgan, Asara, and Sanuye out riding together; basically, a normal day. You tell Belphegor as much.

"Exactly. Do you know how rare it is for a demon such as myself to find a place to settle down where mortals wouldn't even give me a second glance beyond a friendly hello, even knowing who and what I am? No groveling worship, no being chased out with pitchforks and torches, no whining for deals, genuinely nothing. It is refreshing."

"So as you can see, I quite like it here. And have you seen the mortal responsible for all of the buildings here? Sora does good work, better even than several of the demons I have under me, and they've been doing their jobs for much longer than he's been alive. I'd snap him up in a heartbeat if I knew it wouldn't backfire horribly."

"Oh come now, you didn't think I'd just settle in a quaint little defenseless place, now did you? Hardly. I certainly don't want to have to be responsible for their defense. And if I did take that mortal builder I'd have the entire island out for my blood, literally. And even though I'd be more than happy to snatch up several of these warriors as well, it would simply be more convenient to take the whole place as my own. And that would be actively claiming this place as my turf and that would just drag it into the mess I've been trying to keep it and my things out of. Getting the island leveled in a grudge match between demons rather defeats the point of keeping all my things out of harm's way here, now doesn't it?"

"And besides, why bother ruling the place when it runs just fine without me? I can get all of the benefits for none of the work, and believe me, I've got more than my fair share of that already."

"Mmm, which warriors? Well, that saggitari and gryphon, for starters. A simple deal and a bit of demon magic, and the Zinnia's time as a cripple would be a thing of the past. She's already quite the force to be reckoned with, can you imagine what she'd be like with my power running through her veins? But alas, she is wise to the ways of demons. And quite frankly, I'd rather not test the patience of a mortal who has gone toe to toe with not one, but multiple harbringers. I rather enjoy watching mortals butcher monsters; I have no desire to see that blade turned on me. As for the Godslayer, she would be rather...trickier, but I could manage. I mean, a mortal who went toe-to-toe with Ulkktar, the demonic lunar god, and won? Do you even understand the gravity of such a feat? No, you don't, because you're an ignorant mortal."

"Hahaha, you can't possibly think that I haven't noticed this place isn't all that it seems? Please. I am a lord of demons. You think I wouldn't notice the few odd souls around here? And I do mean odd. I've seen undead, grims, and monsters galore, but this grim is quite the entertaining anomaly. Oh, I'm speaking of Xino of course. Poor boy keeps giving me the side-eye; not like he can help the newfound instincts cropping up in my wake. I've offered to help, but..."

The demon shrugs.

"Well, you know how it is. Mortals never can believe that us demons can truly have their best intentions at heart, now can they?"

The toothy smirk on Belphegor's face says otherwise.

"Oh sure, I'd be getting quite a bit out of it too, but nothing in life is ever free. Just ask the grim pup, the hybrid, the kitsune, and that feathered mortal. They paid for their second chance quite heavily. But that's their tale to tell, not mine."

"What? Itachi?"

Belphegor scowls darkly.

"That rat? Feh. He's a yokai, and a nuisance at that. Instead of being a proper demon and building up his might and power base, he trips people! That's all he does, and he has the nerve to insist it's the way of things! Bah!"

"The gal- ugh."

Belphegor groans.

"Yes, I took that insufferable brat of Zinnia's. He needed some supervision after all, and apparently I was the one who qualified. He behaved himself decently at the gala, which was a miracle in and of itself considering his usual antics."

Belphegor grumbles, before giving you a dark look.

"Now go, shoo. If you're not going to be entertaining and are instead going to sit around demanding answers all day, then you can go do that with someone else. I'd rather not have to deal with the fallout of having to clean what would be left of you off the ground should you continue irritating me, so why don't you save the both of us the trouble and get going?"

You do so, though not without resolving to keep an eye on the demon lord while you're here. As you glance back over your shoulder, you see Belphegor giving you a lazy smirk, before a young wickerbeast and leafy sea dragon crack a chicken morphing potion over his head. The sight of that high and mighty lord of demons, eyes wide and suddenly chickenified...absolutely priceless. And you know from Belphegor himself that despite what he is currently shouting as he chases after the laughing kids, he wouldn't actually hurt them. As he said himself...this is where he keeps his things.