Ball of Nothing

Lord Baal's body double blinked. The ladies brought back groceries as promised for the feast and didn't seem troubled at all. Unable to help himself, he demanded details about their trip to town. Wiser received some really strange stones that made Lord Baal wary for a while.

"What happened while you were there?" he asked while Qin Yun and Amaraline busied away in the kitchen.

"Nothing much," she said airily. "We just set up bank accounts and took out a loan to start a small shop."

"My account should have been frozen. What did you give as collateral? Also, what's with those strange stones? I feel something unpleasant from them."

The trader grinned. "Now that is something we're trying to find out over the next few days. The only lead we have is the auction house. I was hoping you could help us with that since the bank's manager isn't a very helpful person. I hope he enjoyed the interest I returned after he tried to rip us off."

That made the Demon King interested. Not many had the gall to cheat a businessman under Mammon's tutelage and many who tried wouldn't get away with it.

"I must say I'm impressed. What did you do? Am I in any trouble financially? What kind of agreements did you make?"

Coux explained about the situation at the bank starting with Baal's frozen account and the manager's interest in Amaraline's stone when Qin Yun tried to use it as a form of payment.

"Things quickly became weird during the negotiations. He became too interested in the magic stone so we did some digging in town. Someone is behind the curse on those magic stones that was said to boost physical capabilities and magic abilities using the mana and lifespan of demons using it. It was rumoured to have some addicting side effects too but we're not sure about it. There was definitely something on those stones but it isn't magic."

"Something that acts like a curse but isn't magic? That sounds a little too far-fetched, doesn't it?" The body double asked.

Coux sighed. "I would like to believe that it's a tall tale too. After all, it is a frightening thought that such powers could exist. Wiser is currently working on it. Coincidentally, I didn't fail the first mission. We made some profit off the loan from the shop. I intend to return to the shop tomorrow to do more investigations and catch the eye of some high-profile figures to hook us up with the auction house and the cursed stone supplier."

The double grinned. He didn't expect anything less from Lilith's descendant.

"Oh, one last thing. I'm going to borrow your residence and covenant mark to operate my business. You'll be getting twenty percent of the profit once your account is unfrozen. Qin Yun is the guarantor for both Truen and my account so she gets twenty too. Truen gets twenty for his travel with Zero and the rest will go to my account for business expansion purposes."

Lord Baal was impressed. "How much do we have at the moment?"

"I'll say somewhere around five hundred cursed notes or half a devil gold? There were quite a few mid-grade magic stones in the pile of low-grade ones. I'm just not sure if the bank will be willing to exchange it for money seeing how the manager is probably still fuming."

Baal's double laughed. "I'm sure you won't have a problem converting it to cash once you're in the auction house. In fact, I'll write a letter to Mammon tonight. You should hear from him soon."

Coux thanked Lord Baal and decided to head to the library to study the maps she'd gotten earlier today. It was never too early to plan for business expansion. If Belles and Begonia was a successful model, she would have more Demon Lords invest in it. After all, Zoe and Lovina wouldn't be able to keep up with the demand if their popularity exploded through the roof. Coux would require actual bakeries producing human food somewhere and a logistic arrangement to keep their outlets fully stocked. Dimensional boxes didn't come cheap, she couldn't afford to have one at every outlet.

***

"Fool!" a huge dark figure snarled. Teeth gnashed and it did nothing to help the goat demon manager who was trembling on his knees.

"I'm sorry your honour! I promise to get those stones in two days' time! They will host a competition at the shop, I will send in as many participants as I can. The prize is twenty high-grade stones... They might have more if we could invite them to the auction house..."

Growling in discontent, three pairs of red eyes glared at the trembling bank manager.

"See that you do," the low voice growled. "Or you'll be on my next menu..."

"Yes, your honour!" the bank manager squealed before making his hasty depart.

Once the dark cave was cleared, the sound of rustling chains and howling could be heard. The bloody sky did nothing to improve Kerberos' mood. How he wished there was an easier way to remove the chains on him. Unfortunately, the magic of Great Gods was not to be underestimated. Sadly, the same couldn't be said of their memory.

"If only I didn't chew his cloak that night..." the three-headed hound lamented. Now, it was too late for all that. The only way to undo the stupid chain that bound him to Hell for all eternity was to turn time back.

It didn't matter what the price was, Kerberos would turn back time and return to his master's side once more. If he needed to beg for forgiveness, he would. It was better than lying forgotten all alone with nobody to hear his cries.

"Just a little more," the hound hissed. "A little more and I can set everything right again..."

***

"Is that the last order?" Lovina panted. Making two thousand pancakes on such a short notice took every ounce of magic she'd recovered. Thank goodness Cleo had a number of mana potions stocked up. Zoe was faded all the way up till her waist, too tired to maintain her solid form. Coux really worked them hard.

"I don't know about you but I'm going to shower and take a nap before I get to analysing the cursed stones Coux got from the abyss," she told Zoe who nodded. As the master of all known curses, Lovina was eager to get started on the case.

The witch headed back to her apartment with heavy thoughts. It was rather strange for Coux to demand so many things from the village. Could Zero be in some sort of pinch? Didn't Demon King Baal give his word to protect them? Was there a famine in Hell? Then again, considering the kind of climate it was rumoured to have, Lovina wouldn't be too surprised if Hell was suffering from eternal drought and famine. What better ways to punish sinners than make them feel the constant pains of having an empty stomach?

Still, two hundred pancakes and thirty pies should be able to last the party for a good number of days. Lovina understood that time flowed rather differently in the abyss compared to the material plane. However, there was no reason for them to consume so much food in just a few days. What's stranger was for Coux's request to have the hunting party bring back meat enough for three feasts by tomorrow. When Zenobia heard that, she'd sent about half of the village's able forces to go gather anything they can find. Nobody knew what was going on back there, they only received broken bits of information from Coux who seemed too busy for anything.

What they didn't know was the kind of waves Coux was creating in Hell with the introduction of real food. Those two hundred pancakes, thirty odd pies and a few hundred kilograms of meat will forever be recorded into the history of Hell as the first ever Mega Gourmet Competition.

It was also the first time a new sin was recorded and a new Demon Lord crowned. His name is Beelzebub, the Lord of Flies. His record? Seventy-six pancakes, five pies with three slices and fourteen kilograms of roasted meat. However, this is a story for another time.