Seeing how diligently they practiced kendo, Regulus taught them some fundamentals. To his surprise, all three girls showed quite good talent. He even considered whether to take them in as members of his Peerage.
After thinking it over, however, he decided to wait for now.
Taking in Peerage members was an extremely important matter, because there were only so many pieces available.
The Devil Chess Pieces were modeled after international chess in the human world.
In a Rating Game, there were sixteen pieces in total: one King, one Queen, two Rooks, two Knights, two Bishops, and eight Pawns.
The fifteen pieces other than the King were issued by the current Maou.
In other words, he only had fifteen pieces at his disposal.
Because the King piece could drastically strengthen the holder's abilities, it was considered too dangerous. Therefore, it could only be issued by Ajuka Beelzebub, the creator of the Devil Chess Pieces.
Because of this, accepting Peerage members required careful consideration.
Regulus often wondered how wonderful it would be if he could have infinite pieces.
Then he would not have to worry about things like this, but it was nothing more than a pipe dream.
"Ohayo, everyone!"
Looking at the girls, Regulus smiled and greeted them.
Class time was extremely boring.
Regulus even fell asleep with his head resting on his desk.
Finally, the dull day came to an end when school let out at four in the afternoon.
Next came free club activity time.
Regulus went to the Kendo Club together with several girls from his class. After letting the girls practice kendo on their own, Regulus entered his private training room alone and began training.
Even without his sister's supervision, he would not slack off. No matter how late it was, he had to complete the training tasks his sister had assigned.
...
"99,997… 99,998… 99,999… 100,000!"
"Huff… huff…"
After swinging his sword another hundred thousand times, Regulus's hands trembled slightly.
Is this the limit? Staring at his shaking hands, Regulus fell silent.
The plot was about to begin soon.
Fallen Angels, Riser Phenix, the White Dragon Emperor, and more. One powerful enemy after another.
With his current strength, what could he possibly do?
The thought left him unwilling to accept it.
Was this really as far as his strength could go?
[Ding! The Strongest Demon Lord System has been activated. Please check the functions yourself, Host!]
Hearing the sudden voice echo in his mind, Regulus was stunned.
He immediately became ecstatic.
He was no stranger to the concept of a "system." When he first transmigrated, he had once looked forward to what kind of cheat he might awaken.
However, sixteen years had passed, and the so-called cheat never appeared. He had long since given up hope.
What he did not expect was that the cheat had actually arrived after all.
As expected, a transmigrator's system might be late, but it would never be absent!
He closed his eyes and began to examine the system within his mind. After a while, he grasped the system's capabilities.
This system did not grant Regulus overwhelming strength instantly. Instead, it bestowed Devil Chess Pieces.
The Devil Chess Pieces provided by the system were all Mutated Pieces, far stronger than ordinary ones. Moreover, these pieces were infinite.
This meant Regulus could contract as many Peerage members as he wished!
He had not expected his earlier pipe dream of infinite pieces to truly come true.
Furthermore, through the ability of the King piece he had fused with, as long as he successfully contracted a Peerage member, his own strength would receive feedback.
The stronger the Peerage member, the greater the power fed back to him.
In other words, as long as he possessed enough powerful Peerage members, his strength could continue to grow without limit.
Of course, there were still restrictions. If the gap in strength was too great, the contract would fail.
He currently possessed the strength of a Low-class Devil, which meant he could not contract Peerage members above the Ultimate-class Devil rank.
After thinking it over, Regulus realized that, based on his memories, there were not many suitable Peerage members he could contract.
Moreover, he had no intention of contracting male members.
Those he knew included Asia Argento, Xenovia, Irina Shidou, Rossweisse, Ravel Phenix, and others.
Or perhaps he could add the three girls from the Kendo Club?
Even if he contracted all of them, he estimated that he would only barely reach the Devil level he wanted, which fell far short of his expectations.
Maybe he could even include his own sister?
Shaking his head, Regulus continued reading the system's function descriptions. As expected, the system already had a solution prepared.
That solution was the transmigration function.
At fixed intervals, the system would randomly select several worlds that he could travel to.
Upon seeing this function, Regulus immediately gave the system a mental thumbs-up. The solution was simply too perfect.
As long as he could travel to other worlds, contracting Peerage members would no longer be difficult.
Filled with anticipation, he immediately clicked the transmigration function button.
In the next moment, three rectangular screens appeared before Regulus's eyes, displaying the worlds randomly selected by the system.
The first world: Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend.
Upon seeing this world, the first people Regulus thought of were its heroines: Eriri, Utaha Kasumigaoka, and Megumi Kato.
Unfortunately, they were all ordinary people with no combat talent. Even if he contracted them, they would not bring him much of a boost.
The second world: High School of the Dead.
This was a world where the apocalypse had just begun, and the person who left the deepest impression on him was Saeko Busujima.
She was a classic traditional woman, skilled in cooking, humble and gentle, and well-versed in the ways of a waifu.
Moreover, she possessed considerable talent in kendo.
In Regulus's view, her skill was already quite impressive, at least compared to his former self. When measured against an ordinary person, she could even be called a kendo genius.
In addition to that, she possessed a strong bloodlust, a personality trait that Regulus did not dislike.
In fact, he quite liked this side of Saeko Busujima.
It was the mentality of the strong.
If Eriri were the one contracted, she likely would not gain much combat power even after becoming a Devil. But Saeko Busujima was different.
Regulus even suspected that after being reincarnated as a Devil, she might possess the strength of a Mid-class Devil.
This was Saeko Busujima's potential…