Dungeon Defense
Dungeon Defense - Volume 5 Chapter 1: Chapter 1

Chapter 1 – Darkness

I do not have a religion.

My father scoffed at religion. He has always been a man who would scoff at things frequently.

To my father, religion was opium for the weak and, by extension, a factory that created weak people. My father wanted his household to be a hunting ground that raised the strong. Even a gap where opium could be planted was not allowed in his household.

My father had once sat at the dining table and said this:

“The trend of religion has passed. To be a little more exact, even now, the trend is in the middle of withering away.”

It was obvious what my father wanted from his children. He wanted us to grow up into beasts that could rip through anything. Religion was the easiest livestock to rip the flesh off of. My father’s scoffing was easily passed down onto us.

At that time, besides us, our mothers were also seated at the dining room table, but there was one among them who was religious. From what I can remember, she was from a family that had very strict religious traditions. Nevertheless, I have never seen her give a retort to my father’s jeers.

She would simply pray by herself for 5 seconds before every meal. By doing so, she would narrowly overlook the various responses. My father would end up smiling bitterly before saying,

‘Well. It can’t be helped.’

At those times, his tone would nearly sound as if he were simply allowing his silly lover to have her few seconds of freedom.

She behaved like a heretic with deep sins. She didn’t raise her voice when memorizing scriptures, nor did she meet up with other believers in private. No, she didn’t even preach to her own child about religious doctrines. A silent tribute before a meal. 5 seconds. It felt as if that was all there was to her faith.

The time I witnessed the sight of her praying was almost close to a coincidence. Looking back at it now, I’m uncertain whether that was actually a prayer or not. Every once in a while, trivially peculiar things happen to me. During those times, I have trivially peculiar thoughts. This story is like that as well.

I had shut myself in the study on that day. I had done so because the mothers were occupying the living room and having a large quarrel. They were so loud that the sound of the argument between mothers had even seeped through the door crevice of the study.

— This is my home. My and that person’s home. How dare you uneducated people thoughtlessly set foot······.

— If someone here is going to leave, then it should be you! It’s all your fault after all. Last time and this time as well, all of it······.

— Please, if we think before we speak, then······.

Arguments like this occurred at the drop of a hat.

There was nothing significant about it. No matter how loud their dispute on whether I’m the whore or she’s the whore got, the mothers were consistent when it came to turning a blind eye to what was actually the most important conclusion, in other words, the fact that it was my father who was the worst motherfucker in the universe. At the very least, it was like that when they fought among themselves. In this house, as my father was like an inviolable existence, to them, everyone excluding themselves was a whore.

In that moment, someone had run into the study. It was her. She must have been struck by someone as her lips were bleeding. Soon after, something bewildering occurred. The moment she and I made eye contact, she burst into tears.

I calmly comforted her and stroked her shoulder. I wonder how much time passed. She grasped my hand and wept.

“Forgive your mothers. Forgive your father. Forgive us. Every day, aah. Truly, I repent my sins every day······ Truly······.”

It felt as if I had been slapped since my head went blank.

She continued to mutter while keeping her head lowered.

“Please forgive us. As I shall repent my sins, please take pity on the sins which I could not repent. Please forgive us······.”

The person who she was pleading for forgiveness from was most likely not me. She wasn’t crying to me, but to her God after all.

At a glance, it felt as if she had succeeded. As her cries traveled an incredible distance when she wept, it almost sounded as if it were not here.

How desperate her voice was. It was to an extent that it nearly fooled even me. If she had not shed her tears on me, if her tears had not stained my clothes, then there was a chance that I might have actually believed that God had heard her cries.

At the very most, the only place where her tears could drench was my clothes. The only place that would willingly be drenched by her tears was also my clothes. I then understood that this was the problem of everything.

I comforted her for a long time before sending her back out of the study. I sat down on a chair and fell into deep thought. Who could forgive that person’s sins?

She had cried to God. Or maybe she had cried towards her entire life. However, as I am not a God, it was not her entire life even more. No matter who it was. What can anyone do for her? Who can declare the innocence of a human?

The place outside of the door was still dreary with the sound of fighting.

— Last time as well, because we had done everything the way you wanted······.

— No, it’s because you were so needlessly persistent······.

— Please, if you’re going to fight, then do it outside······.

I picked up the book that I was reading earlier.

The words were not registering in my eyes. Only sound. As it was the sound of fighting that had started before I was born and will be the sound of fighting that will continue even after my father’s death, this continued to echo in my head.

Even the cry that had been burying itself into my clothes a second ago was mixed in over there. The sound of crying and the sound of voices feasted upon each other and disgorged one another. I felt dizzy. There were only a few words that reached my ear and could be heard distinctly.

All your.

No, you.

Please.

That was it.

The musical melody of Beethoven, which I had turned on, was flowing through the study. ‘From darkness to light’, this was supposedly a quote from Beethoven. I did not know how many gaps I had to cross, nor did I know how many the gaps had to be in order for my life to become a single melody.

This was what I was simply unaware of.

The King of Peasants, Rank 71st, Dantalian

Empire Calendar: Year 1506, Month 4, Day 10

Polles, Bruno Plains, Army of the Crescent Alliance

“Sinner Dantalian, listen.”

My trial was carried out in a simple fashion. It happened late in the night.

Once the afternoon sun shone down on the season where the spring rain had just ended, the world became humid. That humidity continued on even into the evening. As I was still seated inside of the prison, I received the steam that was wandering somewhere between the late spring and early summer with my bare skin.

According to the judge,

“A few days ago, you had basked in the glory of being selected as the representative to give the speech of the Crescent Alliance to announce the start of war. You, however, had dared to nominate the lowly blood of a human and, as a result, you had disgraced your blood allies. Although you are the representative of all of demonkind, since the one you had chosen to act in your place was a human, at the very least, you have thrown away your obligations, and at most, you have sullied the customs of demonkind. Your sin is tremendous.”

is what I had done.

I don’t know if my sin is tremendous or not, but the only thought that was going through my head was that the camp was tremendously noisy even during the night. The purge was currently in a present progressive form. Although the Demon Lords who were revealed as traitors were all beheaded, there were still soldiers who were loyal to those decapitated heads, so a slaughter of the highest acclaim was occurring at the bottom of the hill.

— ······.

Farnese was still performing there. The performance that had started late in the evening did not stop even when a quarter of a day had passed. It happened late in the night. In the center of where soldiers were killing soldiers and soldiers were being killed by soldiers, Farnese’s fingers flew across the piano keys as she relied on the torches that were lighting various areas of the camp.

The witches were convoying my trial from a distance and muttering to each other.

“Seriously, if she’s going to keep that up, then how long does Miss General intend to perform—?”

“I don’t know. A lot of stuff must have piled up in her mind as she lived her life. If she can release her large amount of stress by doing that, then it’d be a relief.”

“Do you think I asked that question because I didn’t knooow that? I asked that because her song is shady. From a good perspective, it’s a song overflowing with madness, and from a bad perspective, it’s just a crazy song. Either way, it doesn’t change the fact that our general is a slightly crazy bitch.”

“You’re hearing it like that because your knowledge of art is exceedingly lacking. Even if the things you’re lacking in isn’t just one or two things, among those things, you’re overwhelmingly lacking in your knowledge of art. Similar to how only humans appear in the eyes of humans, only crazy bitches appear in the eyes of crazy bitches, so the phenomenon where General Farnese appears like a crazy bitch to you just proves the fact that you’re a crazy bitch. Wow. I was really fucking logical just now.”

“Aha. Do you want to be fucking logically beat up?”

“If you want to prove me wrong, then try composing a decent song yourself.”

“Aaall right. I’ll start composing right away. You provoked me. For starters, once you play my song, then thooose corpses that died over there will spring up and start dancing, and even Master Dantalian’s penis will stand up and dance fancifully. Just you wait······.”

“······.”

I wonder if it’s because the witches were rattling on endlessly. The judge’s expression changed into a frown. Similarly, the demon soldiers the judge had brought also had quite the bad complexion. The witches were no different to outcasts. It must be unpleasant. Although it should be my role as their master to stop them, who cares? I left them alone.

Because the girl who came here as the judge was a bit annoying.

“Haa.”

In the end, the judge stopped reading out my sentencing and let out a sigh.

“······Heey. It’d be nice if you listened to me a bit seriously. This isn’t someone else’s sentencing but yours, Skinnybones. No matter how much this may be just for the sake of formality, goofing off so blatantly like that is going too far, isn’t it?”

The judge was none other than Demon Lord Sitri.

Paimon’s close aide, the girl who had at one point tried to poison me to death was reading my crime to me. Sitri’s expression would become vague when she rebuked me for my wrongdoing, but it felt like that was because she herself knew that she had nothing to be ashamed about. If that weren’t the case? Then she’s a fucking bastard.

The problem was the issue regarding whether Sitri was a fucking bastard or a fucking bitch.

“I have no idea what you may be talking about, Your Honor. I am already focused. In truth, I am so focused that it almost feels as if I cannot be any more focused than this. I am so concentrated that if I were to be any more concentrated than this, then, on the contrary, I would no longer be able to concentrate.”

“Yeah, so that’s why you’re fervently staring at my crotch even now?”

“It is a territory that deserves to be academically researched.”

“You mean a territory that deserves to be pervertedly indulged in, you pervert.”

Rank 12th, Demon Lord Sitri was a hermaphrodite. This meant that she possessed both a pΟnis and vΟgina at the same time, but a king can’t possibly utter such vulgar words like simultaneous possessor of a pΟnis and a vΟgina, so I am making do by elegantly referring to her as a hermaphrodite. I am a gentleman who knows courtesy after all.

“How is it like, Your Highness Sitri? Is there a difference between the pleasure you bask in when using your male genitalia and the bliss you experience when using your female genitalia? Although I have heard many times before that the pleasure which the female genitalia experience is much greater than its male counterpart, there is not much to that statement if I am not provided proof. There is a possibility that the type of sexual pleasure itself is different. Since the sensation of being rammed and doing the ramming are completely different, the very act of ruthlessly lumping those two together and calling it sexual pleasure may possibly be mistaken. If that is the case, then it would be an issue of preference. Your Highness Sitri. Your Respectable Honor. It may be presumptuous of me to ask, but between being rammed and doing the ramming, which act is more to your taste, Your Honor?”

“Yup, you pervert. You’re already perverted and not only are you perverted to the point that it feels as if you cannot be any more perverted than this, you’re so perverted that if you somehow do become more perverted than this, then at that point, you’d have already stopped being a pervert and have become something else.”

This was a ridiculous slander. Honestly speaking, I was slightly shocked. Even if this woman⎯⎯⎯this man⎯⎯⎯no, this woman, no this man, in short, this person who could either be a fucking bitch or a fucking bastard, this Demon Lord who I have yet to determine if they’re a fucking bastard or a fucking bitch so, in short, I’ll refer to them as Schrodinger’s fuck⎯⎯⎯even if she was simply reading straight from the untampered manuscript which was written by both Barbatos and Paimon, if you consider her statement just now, it was dubious as to whether she was actually maintaining neutrality as the judge or not. To be honest, it was also doubtful as to whether there were enough brain cells stored inside that skull or not. However, this might be a bit of a rude suspicion to have. Whenever I find myself in a situation where it is difficult to tell whether the opposition in front of me has brain cells or not, I was on the side of believing that they did. I am still a gentleman who knows courtesy after all······.

“That is certainly true. Our Master Dantalian is indeed a perverted pervert.”

“Yup. Our master and the word pervert are so closely connected to one another, that it’s quite difficult to claim that he isn’t a pervert. Not only is it incredibly difficult to do, but if you deny the fact that our master is a pervert, then it’d feel like you’re denying our master’s very being. In other words, this means that Master Dantalian’s very essence is perverted. Ah. I was really fucking logical just now.”

“How strange. It seems logic has changed without my knowledge.”

“By the way, what are you scribbling on that parchment? How dare you do something else even though we’re discussing the fact that our master is a pervert.”

“I’m writing a song. What’s so new about the fact that Master Dantalian is a pervert that you girls need to babble about it? If anything, you all might as well babble about the fact that the sun will also rise in the morning tomorrow and also set at night tomorrow since that will at least bestow upon all of your lacking sense of culture a smidgeon of new knowledge. More importantly, in order to prove my knowledge of art, I’m in the middle of composing an amazing song, a song that humanity has never heard of thus far and never will in the future.”

“I wonder about that. From what I can tell, I feel like your statement just now is actually the bullshit that humanity has never heard of thus far and never will in the future······.”

“Now that I think about it, I heard a rumor that Master Dantalian slept with General Farnese.”

“What?”

“What was that?”

“What did you say?”

“What do re mi did you say?”

“Beautiful. A magnificent chorus. Good. If we add our ensemble to the general’s performance, then it’ll make it even better. It’s only right for crazy bitches to sing for a song played by a crazy bitch. Sing, you bitches. Dance, you bitches. Let us hold our own Walpurgis Night by ourselves.”

“What did you say la ti fa mi re dooo—?”

“Damn it, that’s a bit too much. You went too far. The chorus ended up coming to a halt as soon as it had begun because of some psychotic bitch. This is why singing with crazy bitches is quite the difficult task. They’re quite the crazy bitches after all.”

“Wait a second. If that rumor is true, then why doesn’t Master even look our way even though he’s slept with the general? Though I shouldn’t be the one to talk, from our and the general’s appearances, our ages don’t look that far apart, right? To be honest, we’re pretty much the same. We’re similarly young. Why am I hearing this rumor about our master sleeping with General Farnese for the first time?”

“That can be answered with a very simple response. Because it’s a rumor that I made up just now.”

“This fucking bitch?”

“So what were we talking about?”

“We were talking about Master Dantalian being a pervert.”

“We were talking about how Master Dantalian slept with the general just now.”

“Dear Lord. Is that true? Really, Master. You can’t live like such a pervert. A person should live with some courtesy.”

“······.”

And my witches were fellows who had shoved something like courtesy into a food waste disposal bin. These damned girls.

“These sluts who wouldn’t even be satisfying to chew to death⎯⎯⎯.”

Rustle.

It was at the instant that the commander whom Sitri had brought pulled out his sword.

The witches who were chatting and cackling among themselves raised their staffs and aimed them at the throats of the soldiers. It was night. Shadows that were clearly not cast by the night wrapped around the necks of the soldiers like octopus tentacles. They wickedly flicked around as if they could lick the necks of the soldiers and deprive them of their lives at any moment.

“······.”

The commander gulped. In the distance, although the slaughter under the pretext of purging was still noisy and the song that Farnese was performing was also prominent, this place, because this hill where my prison cell was located was like the eye of the storm placed at the very center of all the clamor, the sound of someone gulping was bleak.

“Yeah?”

“Well?”

“What?”

The witches tilted their heads. The angle and speed with which the witches had tilted their heads were identical. While obliquely tilting their heads at the same speed and angle, the witches smiled gaily.

“Is it your first time seeing crazy bitches?”

“······, ······.”

“Mm. Sir. You. Mister. I don’t think this is our first meeting. I remember seeing your face somewhere. Where was it? Ahahah. Where did I witness this punk’s faaace?”

Aha, the witch then uttered.

“Yotvingian Plains. The assembly area of the Crescent Alliaaance.”

“······.”

“That’s right. That’s when I saw you. That’s when you showed your face, while moving those trivial eyes. While wagging that dirty mouth. Yup. I saw you then. What did you prattle on about at that tiiime? My dear comrades, my beloved ladies. Do you remember—?”

“I remember.”

“I remember well.”

“His Highness Dantalian was leading the troops and passing through the humble encampment, but they obstructed our path. They threw snowballs at us. It was piles of snow that were smeared in mud. We had no other choice but to protect His Highness with our lowly bodies. We didn’t even hope that someone would wipe our bodies, but His Highness personally wiped our clothes clean.”

The witches giggled in a low tone. Their laughter easily seeped into the low air of the night sky. The laughter flowing from the witches was uniquely light. I believed that that was the case because they had thrown away their lives somewhere. As their proof for having thrown it away somewhere, the witches cackled as they pulled up something that had happened a fair while ago.

— For Your Honor’s mistress to be an outcast, general to be a human, and royal bodyguards to be witches, Your Honor’s good faith impales the sky. Indeed, it’s befitting of the King of Peasants.

— You must be very fortunate to be so popular with women, Your Honor! Please teach the people how to bed lowly harlots and spread the information throughout the world.

— Does Your Honor plan to cut us lowly subjects down? That’s fine. Since Your Honor had stabbed the throat of His Highness Andromalius in order to save the life of a succubus whore, then killing dozens or hundreds of us lowly subjects for the sake of those witches should also be possible, right?

— Please step over our corpses with Your Honor’s grace.

Although it was something that had happened a fairly long time ago, the witches remembered it well as it was not something that had occurred quite a long time ago.

Each witch took a role and they recited to each other the lines which the soldiers had uttered on that day. As they continued to recite the lines, the shadows that were digging into the necks of the soldiers dug in further. The sound of gulping resonated here and there.

“Master?”

“Our master.”

“These fellows took out their swords first so how should they be tortured?”

I nodded.

“How unsightly. But how can they be used if they are killed just because they are unsightly?”

“Then what should be done?”

“Kill only one.”

Blood scattered.

“······.”

It happened late in the night.

The front of the spring rain had battered the Habsburg Empire and it wasn’t until three or four days ago that the rain had departed a bit towards the south. The rain clouds had sprayed an abundant supply of water on the ground, allusively proving its legacy. On the horizon of the Bruno Plains, only the puddles of water heading south were infinite. When the numerous torches spread throughout the encampment shines on those surfaces of water, it becomes beautiful as the puddles become radiant.

At the bottom of the hill, in that nirvana that was half-water and half-dirt, unknown soldiers were shouting fiercely. Although I could not see the soldiers, the torches displayed their shadows and those shadows shouted with their black maws.

— Kill the traitors!

The legs of the shadows were buried up to their calves in each pool of muddy water. Within the vicinity of their buried calves, as one might suspect, the mouth of some unknown corpse was submerged. The mouths could not possibly drink all of the muddy water. Be that as it may, they could not disgorge the water either.

They were merely submerged underneath the surface of the water.

They merely sank as if they were in a swamp.

Muddy water entered the opened mouths of the corpses and the surface levels of the pools shrunk according to the extent of those mouths. It felt as if that was the corpses’ way of digging their own graves. It was a gravesite all around.

— ······.

In the center of the land that was filled with graves in every direction, Farnese continued to perform her song. The night sky overshadowed the world, making it seem as if everything was wrapped in black vinyl. On that surface, Farnese’s performance became gloss and simmered. In each spot that the starlight shone down upon, the girl’s performance crawled up like a snake’s tongue and licked the lower parts of the starlight.

Thus, as the spewed up clamorous cries from the shadows formed a low key and Farnese’s escalating sound formed a major key, the already dead corpses occasionally sunk down to the bottom as silence, resulting in music resonating throughout the land that was filled with graves.

— Kill them!

The shadows shouted. Or perhaps, their mouths did.

— ······.

Farnese performed. Or perhaps, her fingers did.

— Slaughter them······.

Perhaps the eyes being black with rage would be preferable. While the corpses were stepped on along with the mud and the mud rotted away along with the corpses, eyes that were useless no matter what they looked at, maws that could not be quenched no matter what they drank, and fingers that did not particularly matter regardless of what they pointed at. As they pointed at those unpardonable traitors.

The sound itself was shouting.

As a result of using Farnese as my proxy to spread poison throughout the world, they were shouting while gaping their mouths wide open and the corpses passed away with their maws stuck in the ground. As the torches illuminated brightly due to that sound, clamor, and silence⎯⎯⎯when they become a single shadow and swell⎯⎯⎯ah, at that time, my life knew nearly no bounds.

All of that was the state of enlightenment which I had brought about during the single week I was in prison.

Victory was nice.

Furthermore, it was occasionally beautiful.

“That,”

After breaking the long silence, Sitri spoke.

“was a subordinate I cherished quite a bit.”

“Is that so? This is unfortunate.”

I turned my head with difficulty after staring at that nirvana for a while. Turning my head was quite the strenuous task. If I had gazed at it any longer, then I might have completely forgotten the fact that I was still imprisoned.

“They had died because they ended up serving a bad lord after all.”

“······.”

The thing which I gazed at instead of the nirvana was a Demon Lord’s feverless face.

Sitri, the Demon Lord of the Mountain Faction who was much superior to me in terms of position as she was ranked 12th, was staring blankly at me. Her eyes were telling me that she wished for nothing more than to be able to twist the neck of the cocky male who was sitting before her. She was so fearsome that I almost involuntarily apologized to her. I am serious. If she had glared at me a bit more seriously, then I might have even forgotten the fact that she had once tried to poison me to death.

······It is always another person’s rage that drags someone who is trying to slightly prolong their stay in nirvana back to reality.

I slowly opened my mouth.

“I am aware as to why Your Honor of all people has come here after having been assigned the duty as a judge. Yes, I know. Her Excellency Barbatos and Her Highness Paimon are most likely currently at their busiest. The two of them most likely wish for me to be trialed in a way where I had not been confined for even a single day.”

“······.”

“My imprisonment is evidence of their dispute. As long as the Plains Faction and the Mountain Faction are now allied, there is a need for the vestiges of my imprisonment to quickly be erased. The current Crescent Alliance is in quite the precarious situation after all······. No, shall I be a bit more honest?”

I chuckled slightly.

“This is not the only time it has been like this, the Crescent Alliance has always been in the state of being on the edge. Instead of being sacred, the Crescent Alliance has been barbaric, and instead of being blood allies through the meaning of shedding blood and tears while fighting together in order to face a common enemy, it is blood allies through the meaning of making your own allies shed some blood.”

“You.”

“Am I being too crude? Have I gone too far? I apologize. Nevertheless, Your Excellency Sitri, it is already a Crescent Alliance where 7 traitors were brought to light. From the start, half of the Demon Lords did not even participate in the Crescent Alliance. They have positioned themselves way back in the rear and the sole thing they are praying for is our failure. This one is asking this out of pure curiosity, but is now the right time to be heavily discussing sanctity and celestialness?”

The Demon Lord Allied Forces as of late have become weaker than ever. Demon Lord Belial died after having his face peeled off by Elizabeth, the Imperial Princess. Several Demon Lords whom I have never met before have either died in battle or were chased out of their castles. Adding to that, although there being traitors was a given, it turned out to be 7 Demon Lords.

The sacrifice was immense. The human alliance before us was in good condition. The area behind our backs was swarming with traitors, no, traitors to our kind. On that list of traitors to our kind, there was even the Rank 1st Demon Lord, Baal. Special countermeasures were necessary.

“We must group together more firmly than ever before. Until we have tortured the swines that are living idly in the backline, the plains and the mountain ranges are a single world. We must make haste and withdraw to the inner parts of the mountains, but there is no operation more difficult than withdrawing while already being torn to tatters. Even if the two parties have wronged each other, they must forgive one another. Only then can trust finally be established.”

“So? What are you trying to tell me?”

“It is simple, Your Highness.”

I spoke.

“If you had made an attempt at a whimsical ally’s life by poisoning them, then what I am trying to say is that you must start off by lowering your head and giving an apology. How could you be discussing this one’s sins with such a brazen look on your royal countenance?”

Sitri shut her mouth.

A long period of time passed before she opened her smooth lips.

“I do?”

“Yes.”

“To you, Skinnybones?”

“Yes.”

“I’m the Demon Lord of the 12th rank and second-in-command of the Mountain Faction. I have exclusive possession of Big Sis Paimon’s affection.”

“I am aware.”

I know that you are fanatical about Paimon.

“You’re nothing more than rank 71st, and not only have you made a half-breed your fiancée, but you made a human your acting general. If I were to punish you the usual way, then you would have died twice over. You want me to apologize despite that?”

“Apologize despite that.”

I spoke.

“Similar to the time in the past when Her Highness Paimon wept as she apologized in the council chamber of Niflheim despite being the head of the greatest faction in the demon continent.”

“······.”

“Or is Your Excellency’s head heavier than Her Highness Paimon’s?”

The silence continued.

Blood flowed on the ground where the torch was illuminating. The neck of the beheaded corpse was completely gone as if it had simply been deleted, making it appear as if it were never there to begin with. As the blood flowed and soaked Sitri’s feet, it went by the way of her toes and flowed between the bars before pushing its way to where I was seated and pooled underneath me. I was asking her if she was prepared to stand in the same pool of blood as me.

“Skinnybones.”

“Yes?”

“You look quite smart so you should know already by now. I don’t particularly think what I did to you was bad. I don’t feel sorry either.”

“I am aware.”

“The Mountain Faction and the Plains Faction will most likely have to start cooperating from now on. At that time, you’ll become quite important. You’re Barbatos’ sex friend and someone Big Sis Paimon reveres after all. Regardless, my instincts are telling me something. Skinnybones, you, no matter where or how I look at you, you’re nothing more than a slaughterer who’s simply mad for authority. It’s to the point that I don’t want to know why Big Sis Paimon regards you highly.”

My word. A slaughterer?

I laughed. I did so louder than earlier. It wasn’t just me. The witches around me had started to giggle as well. Although we all had different throats, the laughter that came out from them easily mixed together. When the laughter blended together, the shadows shone by the torches also danced promiscuously. Sitri was vacantly staring at the sight of us having intercourse with our voices and shadows.

“······.”

“This is, well. Ehem. That is quite. Dear me. It is rather difficult to assure you that I am not that sort of personage. O Your Respectable Honor. I had heard from the rumors that you are an individual who is interested in nothing but martial arts, but it appears you have outstanding observation skills as well.”

“Yup. I know a lot of the things that you don’t know.”

Sitri spoke.

“Even if I apologize to you, I can’t do it sincerely. No, I won’t apologize sincerely. Ever. Do you want to receive my apology despite that?”

“Pardon? I apologize, but I have absolutely no interest in Your Excellency’s sincerity. Did Your Excellency perhaps think that if you apologized sincerely that I would sincerely forgive you? Oh dear.”

The witches laughed.

“Your Excellency. Please think about it cordially. If Your Highness sincerely apologizes to this one, then would this one not have to also sincerely forgive Your Highness? How troublesome is that? I am already suffering due to the threats on my life, but do I now have to even pretend to be sincere? If we warmly apologize and forgive one another, then would the world become beautiful? That beautiful world would be for Your Highness, but would it be for me?”

“······.”

“That is not the type of apology which I am requesting. I am ashamed to say this, but I do not have even the slightest intention to sincerely forgive Your Highness. Whether there is sincerity in the apology or not, that does not change the fact that Your Highness had made an attempt at my life.”

“Then?”

“Get on your knees.”

Kneel.

“Lower your head.”

Bow.

“Utter the words of apology. Endure the ridicule and bear with the indignity. Accept defeat as defeat. Promise me that Your Highness will no longer attack me for a preposterous reason ever again.”

Apologize, endure, bear, accept, and promise.

“And in return.”

In return⎯⎯⎯.

“Despite being aware of the fact that Your Highness is not being sincere, I will forgive Your Highness.”

“······.”

I will forgive you.

You who had casually tried to kill me.

“I shall believe Your Highness’ promise. Of course, my wariness will not disappear, but why would that matter? Promises are bound to last long if they are bound together with sound suspicion rather than groundless trust.”

Traditionally, this much must be done in order for one to utter ‘Ah, I did well winning’ and beautifully bask in the victory.

How humiliating it is when you have to apologize no matter what even though you do not mean it.

Furthermore, how delightful it is to watch the humiliation of a failure.

As that is what apologies essentially are, it had to be like that. It was only appropriate for the one who is being forgiven to be disgraced and the one who is doing the forgiving to be jovial.

Regardless of whether they knew that or not, the witches held their sides with laughter after hearing my words.

“Yup, Master is······ Master really is, yup······.”

“Crazy”

“Insane.”

“Mental.”

“Overall, he’s our master.”

“He’s crazy and crazy that he’s crazy for three generations and thirty-three generations.”

“How lovely. How adorable. How pretty. With what confidence is His Greater Being so cute? It feels like even if he licks, covets, rams, or violates, he’ll be declared innocent if he goes to trial. Yup. I was perfectly logical just now.”

“You’re a perverted bitch who’s logical.”

“I acknowledge the verdict.”

“But it can’t be helped since he’s a eunuch.”

“Yeah, since he’s a eunuch with single-minded devotion to his attendant, Miss Lazuli.”

“⎯⎯⎯Finally finiiiiiiiiiiished!”

“Butt?”

“You bitch?”

“Damn it, I can’t win with shiritori. They’re crazy bitches after all.”

(TL note: Shiritori is a game where you say a word that begins with the final letter in the word that was said previously. So here it was 완서어어어엉->엉덩이->이년이)

“In any case, that was a surprise.”

“What have you been scribbling on that parchment since earlier? Do you even know how important the conversation we’re having right now is? For you to be doing something else even though we’re discussing something this important, I can’t believe it.”

“I was composing a song? I had just now finished writing a masterpiece of the century? I had finished my preparation of making everyone piss themseeelves? Is there a problem? In any case, how important of a conversation was it that you’re acting like that?”

“I don’t know. What were we in the middle of talking about?”

“We were talking about our master being insane.”

“We were talking about our master being a eunuch.”

“Haa? What’s so new about the fact that our master is insane and also a eunuch that you girls are not only babbling about it as if it were important, but also as if it were a situation that could be corrected or changed? More importantly, everyone, I have finally finished the masterpiece that will prove my knowledge of art. Ahaha. If you listen to this and aren’t moved, then not only does that mean you are all lacking in culture, but it may also possibly prove that you all lack a brain. In that regard, you all must naturally listen to my song and be moved. Since no one has ever proved the existence of your brains until now, today, on this day, I shall prove the fact that a brain does indeed exist in your skulls⎯⎯⎯.”

“No.”

Once that was said, the witches went quiet.

It wasn’t a witch who had said no. It was Sitri.

Sitri stared straight at me and said it again.

“No.”

“······.”

“As I thought, I can’t apologize to you. I can’t. Before quibbling over whether I can or not, yup, I don’t want to. I don’t want to apologize and I don’t want to express my remorse. Why should I?”

Sitri tilted her head slightly and smiled. Her grinning face looked so pure that it felt as if she were innocent since birth.

“Really, why should I? Accept defeat as defeat? Heeh. Skinnybones, you were only locked up for about a week, but have you already gone insane? I have never lost to you, Skinnybones.”

“······.”

“Yeah. I tried to assassinate you. Big Sis Paimon has an unusual interest in you for some reason. But it’s because of that very reason that I had tried to kill you. Me, big sis’ close aide. In any case, even if she has some interest in you⎯⎯⎯.”

Sitri tilted her head a bit more.

“In the end, the one who is precious to big sis isn’t you but me. If the moment where big sis has to choose either you or me arrives, then she’ll choose me, not you.”

Surely.

She was not a bastard who lived without thinking nor was she a bitch who lived without thinking.

“Ah, you over there.”

“Eh?”

Before the short exchange could even fully happen, Sitri swung her blade and slashed one of the witches’ shoulders. Blood erupted. A cry erupted.

Srrrrck.

The blade part of Sitri’s weapon shrank down all on its own. It was a blade that could freely contract and extend. In my life before this, before I was brought to this world, I had seen that blade through my computer monitor.

The Connecting Blade. Rank 12th, Demon Lord Sitri’s favorite sword.

Sitri beamed at the witch.

“Hehe. You shouldn’t do that. You shouldn’t record this. What? Did you plan to record everything and hand the recording over to Big Sis Paimon, like you did before?”

Thud.

Sitri approached the collapsed witch. The witch was flailing about on the ground and continuously groaning in pain. Sitri put her hand inside the witch’s clothes, and shortly after, she pulled out an artifact that resembled a pocket watch.

“Uh, huuk······! Kuh, eh······, ······uu, huuh······.”

“Reeaally, for you to use something like memoria magic without permission. You can’t do that. Dantalian, your witches have really bad habits. Is it perhaps because they weren’t educated properly when they were young?”

A blue flame burned. It happened within Sitri’s palm. Once the pocket watch was engulfed in the flame, it burned easily. Without even leaving behind a metallic stain, the artifact had crumbled into small particles of ash and floated into the night sky.

“I won’t kill her. It seems my subordinates were rude during a previous occasion after all. Okay. Can we call it even by saying that, by not having killed this witch just now, I had apologized for what I had done previously?”

“······.”

“Skinnybones?”

This woman.

Is declaring war against me.

“Are you truly sorry?”

The torches shined and revealed half of Sitri’s body. Once the torches became shrouded, half of Sitri’s body was buried in darkness. I am uncertain as to whether she was like that since birth or not, the color of Sitri’s hair half resembled fire and half resembled water. Her eyes were also captured half in light and half in darkness. My current appearance is most likely reflecting like that to Sitri as well. I assumed that.

While assuming,

— It will not be easy.

I looked back at the conversation that I once had with Lapis in the past. It was back during the time when I thought that I would have to assassinate Paimon if need be. On that night where we had held a ballot on the Crescent Alliance expedition and led it to its approval, Lapis called Paimon ‘that person’ and warned me.

— Sitri is always by that person’s side.

— Sitri?

— The Rank 12th Demon Lord. If one were to rank them by personal strength, then Rank 2nd Agares is at the highest, Rank 8th Barbatos is second, and after that is Sitri at third. Since she follows that person like an elder sister and does not leave their side for even a moment, it will be difficult for an assassin to get through.

Is that so.

Is she a rabid dog that is always beaming like an idiot but bares her teeth solely for Paimon?

My instincts were noisily raising an alarm in my head. I thought while putting away the alarm. ······As the head of the Mountain Faction, Paimon led the greatest faction in the demon continent for no less than 400 years. She raised the demon continent on the outside, while, in the background, she secretly established the Republic of Batavia at some out-of-the-way shoreline on the continent ruled by the humans. People have to use their own brain a fair amount even when just trying to maintain two households, but how extremely difficult must it be for a monarch to manage two nations? I am speaking from the heart, but while Demon Lord Paimon’s popularity was virtuous, she had somewhat insufficient resources.

······A different person filled that lack of resources and assisted her. Paimon did not inform me that she had some other chancellor like that. The fact that she did not tell me despite it being something that did not need to be hidden, meant that even Paimon did not know she had a chancellor like that.

I carefully examined the woman before me.

It was this bastard.

It was this person, this person whom I didn’t know whether to call them this bastard or this bitch, that was secretly assisting Paimon.

Similar to how I indulged in disguising myself as a crazed debauchee by making Lapis my lover and pretended to be the world’s stupidest man by making Farnese my acting general.

This fellow, Demon Lord Sitri, voluntarily became a hermaphrodite and habitually committed all sorts of perverted eccentricities.

“······Hmm?”

In order to plant a prejudice against herself into the people whom she meets and make them disregard her.

“Ehehe. Don’t glare at me like that so much, Skinnybones. I said I was sorry, all right? I apologized saying that I was sorry. Honestly, you plotted together with Barbatos and started this war, right? You did all sorts of terrible things! A lot of it!”

The Mountain Faction’s shade.

If Paimon was simply a woman who was trying to spread out the sunlight, then this rabid dog in front of me was a girl who only acted in the shade.

“At the lowest, the number of soldiers who had died because of you is in the thousands. Wow, just saying thousands is really······ on the other hand, I just simply tried to poison you alone. And yet, I’m saying sorry to you right now. I feel really conscientious. You’ll forgive me, right?”

I answered.

“······I shall forgive you.”

“Yup, good. We’ve reconciled now, all right?”

“Yes.”

Nonsense.

“Good. You forgave and I was forgiven. One person was hurt and one person was killed. Although it feels slightly unfavorable for me, well, since Skinnybones is the rather inexperienced protege, I have no other choice but to overlook it as your senior. Hehe. Then let’s continue the trial.”

Sitri took out the piece of parchment that had my sentencing written on it. While she was clearing her throat and getting ready to read, the witches were patching up their injured comrade. Sitri soon began to speak.

“Sinner Dantalian, listen.”

“······.”

“A few days ago, you had basked in the glory of being selected as the representative to give the speech of the Crescent Alliance to announce the start of war······ ah, I’m going to read from the beginning, okay? What am I supposed to do when I forgot where I had left off because some cheeky bitches interrupted me? That’s okay, right, Skinnyhead whom some cheeky bitches call master?”

“Of course.”

I vow. I shall make you kneel down to me.

“Okay. ······You, however, had dared to nominate the lowly blood of a human and, as a result, you had disgraced your blood allies. Although you are the representative of all of demonkind, since the one you had chosen to act in your place was a human, at the very least, you have thrown away your obligations, and at most, you have sullied the customs of demonkind. Your sin is tremendous.”

I shall make you bow.

“Sinner Dantalian, heed my words once more. The court has closely inspected your past, therefore, it has become clear that you had only committed your crime due to your own foolishness and not because you had borne any ill will towards the Crescent Alliance. Although you may have made a dirty member of humankind into your acting general, the person in question has massacred a countless number of her own kind.”

I shall make you apologize.

“The way of the world asks you whose blood has been passed down to you. However, the customs of the battlefield ask you who you had shed your blood for. Thus, even if the blood one was born with is different in the Crescent Alliance, we are blood allies because that blood flows towards the same place. As your humble-blooded subordinate, after having inherited the blood of that lowly race, has served us by adding another vein to our blood allies, is that not also praiseworthy?”

You will have to endure indignity.

“The people of the past once said that dispensing justice and achieving victory cannot be one and the same. However, the council has judged that this is a battlefield. How could one possibly differentiate justice and victory as separate entities in a battlefield? Achieving victory in a war is always as valuable as justice. That is the custom of the battlefield. It would only be appropriate if the broadness of the nature of your crime is counterbalanced by the steepness of your meritorious service in war. That too is the law of the battlefield.”

You will also have to bear with the humiliation.

“When one must first consider the urgency of the battlefield before the way of the world, that is called mercy. If one must rely on mercy while granting amnesty to a sinner, that is solely done in the hopes that the criminal possesses loyalty. Even if your sins are pardoned, from this point forth, you must be cautious as to not disgrace this mercy and betray our faith.”

You will be unable to endure before you are able to endure at last, and you will have to cope with something that cannot be coped with.

“You must continue to achieve victory and be the one to prove righteousness. You must bear in mind the reason why we are granting you mercy and why we have boundless faith in you.”

Because you will fail irreparably.

“As the defendant has committed their crime in the battlefield, they deserve to be judged according to the customs of the battlefield. Dantalian, as the commanders leading the Crescent Alliance, we, Barbatos of Immortality and Paimon of Benevolence, have hereby made their verdict and it shall be conveyed to you through this Sitri of Devotion.”

Look forward to it, Sitri. I promise you.

“⎯⎯⎯You are declared not guilty.”

I shall teach you what an apology is.

······Creak.

Sitri opened the iron door of the prison with a key. The witches approached and wiped my body with the towels they had prepared beforehand. Every nook and cranny. As the girls clothed me in my garments, I stayed silent as they cleaned and clothed me like that. Once I was fully in my attire, I put the straw which I had lived together with for the past week behind me and stepped forward.

It was night.

Because the spring rain had left after having disposed of a lot of water, the world was glimmering with moisture during the night. As what was connecting this side with that side was first darkness and moisture second, it was the torches trembling due to the moisture that came third. Breathing lives and dead lives were emitting steam in the area beyond the shaking torchlight, and Farnese was performing above everything as if she were dancing. On this night where the season solely spread a foul stench, I was discharged.

Sitri grinned.

“Congrats on being discharged.”

I bowed.

“Your grace is immeasurable.”

“Yup. You should know that it’s immeasurable. You go overboard because you don’t know your limit, so if you want to suppress that, you have to be aware of the fact that there is a boundless net spread out above your head. Don’t try to tear it. It won’t tear. It’s a net that has been casted over the history of the Crescent Alliance for 500 years. Don’t raise your head too much. You’ll get caught if you do.”

“······.”

Sitri was pleasantly talking in an affectionate tone. She was smiling in a way that wasn’t excessive or lacking. Similar to how a farmer has no need to swing their plow excessively while cultivating, or how a fisherman has no need to use less strength while gathering, Sitri was not excessive or lacking when pressing her foot down on the thing that was trying to oppose her. It felt as if to Sitri, this was as natural as farmwork was for a farmer.

“Yes, Your Excellency. I will bear that in mind.”

“Ehehe.”

It was at that moment. Sitri reached her hand out and pulled me by my necktie. While forcefully raising my head which I had meekly lowered, Sitri brought her face close to my own. Right in front of my nose. It was a friable distance where I could feel the opposition’s breath around the rim of my eyes.

Sitri quietly whispered in the general area of my eyes.

“⎯⎯⎯If you act up again, then I’ll make you bite the dust without leaving a single trace, all right, Skinnybones?”

And I, believed that I could vividly see the halves of flames burning in her pupils.

King’s Beloved Slave, Berbere Witch Sisters, Captain of the Royal Guard, Humbaba

Empire Calendar: Year 1506, Month 4, Day 10

Polles, Bruno Plains, Army of the Crescent Alliance

Sheesh, hey. Sheesh. I thought I was going to kick the bucket.

As I thought, the aura of high-ranking Demon Lords is something else. Seriously, their aura.

Despite my looks, you know? As I lived my life, you know? I’m a girl who’s experienced every fucking thing that can be described as fucked and what happened just a second ago was really fucked. I believed that the O Goddess of All had personally created this single enunciation and presented it to us lowly people exactly for situations like this.

Shit.

“······.”

Master Dantalian was still deep in thought. Even though a fair amount of time had already passed since Sitri had left and it was nearing midnight. If our master goes quiet then we also have to be quiet.

Lord and vassal of one mind. As his loyal subjects, we can’t possibly dare to interrupt our master’s thinking.

“How difficult. It is abstruse. We must withdraw to the demon continent as soon as possible, but when there is someone among our allies who is still trying to interfere······.”

That was the only thing our master had muttered, and, without saying anything else, he continued to think in silence. He was definitely plotting an immensely profound scheme that the likes of us couldn’t possibly imagine since the contents of our brains were lacking. Yup. I know. I am well aware.

The problem iiisss, this is damn boooring.

“······.”

A dark night.

Only the torches which the guards had set up and abandoned were leisurely burning to nothing. Tic, tic, the sound of sparks flying······.

I could see the lips of my dear fellow witches twitching and wriggling, making it obvious that they wanted to utter nonsense, overflow with bullshit, and make the world vastly tremble both high and low. Aah, fatigue is a scaaary thing. It has a side that is more terrifying than torture. Torture and fatigue even have sides that are parallel to some extent.

The fact they have no end.

The fact they have no bounds.

Ah, truly, the fact that they have no end or bounds.

It’s okay. I’m, confident in enduring torture. That’s why I’m so good at even playing with boredom.

I reminisce the past whenever this happens. Me, you know, despite how I look, you know, I’ve experienced a lot of fucked up things as I lived. Since there is no end or bounds when it comes to fuckery, it’s the perfect thing to dwell on when bored.

If there’s only mud no matter where you place your foot and if there’s only muddy water no matter where you shove your mouth, then that means that people have no other choice but to live after having thrown away a certain amount of their lives somewhere······there was a senior witch who had once said this while smiling sweetly.

That senior had said that and was burned to death in a plaza.

If we’re lowly beings no matter where we go and if we’re lowly beings no matter where we head, then let’s just become the lowest of beasts and gather all of the gold in the world······there was a witch who was the same age as me that had said this while cackling.

That witch had said that and died after having all of her limbs torn off in a marketplace.

Aah. I can hear it vividly even nooow.

— Burn all of the witches!

— Those bitches have brought upon us a year of famine! Those, those scoundrels······!

Sheesh, hey. Sheesh. I thought I was going to kick the bucket.

When I looked around, the other girls were also sullenly lowering their heads.

This is why silence isn’t good.

We are allegedly similar to already broken spring watches. If our surroundings are noisy, then we’ll bury ourselves inside that clamor and rewind the remainder of our lives with our hour hands, but if they’re silent, the meaning of our lives will become nothing more than a ticking racket.

Ah.

I want to do drugs······.

Yeah. I’ll probably feel better if I smoke······.

However, since my mind will become sticky like a swamp again if I do drugs, I’ll probably end up needlessly spitting out all sorts of words. It’s obvious. It was an obvious life. If I do that, then I’ll end up interrupting Master Dantalian’s train of thought. I don’t want that. It was a life I didn’t like.

It’s night.

The torchlight is bright.

Tic, tic, the sound of sparks being spat out was distinct.

Even the sound of someone killing someone somewhere could be heard rather distinctly. Although there was no particular need to listen carefully to that sound, I naturally ended up listening carefully to it since no one else was making a sound.

Fire. Noise.

Stake.

— Kill them······.

— Burn them!

— Those guys······.

Ah.

Mm.

Hey, hey you there.

There’s something I’ve been curious about. It’s something I’ve been really, immensely curious about.

Have we sinned to such a deep exteeent?

I know. Yup. I am well aware. You’ll get hungry if there’s a year of famine. Everything in front of you goes in circles if you get hungry. While everything is going in circles, if there are scoundrels you can throw rocks at and no one will condemn you for it, then, of course, you’d want to throw some rocks. It’s human nature.

Whenever a drought or a plague sweeps through the world, the kind known as witches have always been beings that allowed themselves to be stoned a bit and lacerated a bit in the stead of sovereigns at the price of offering their souls to a Demon Lord. If anything, allowing ourselves to be hit by the people who want to throw some stones is the task we have been given and vocation we have been bestowed.

The problem iiisss, it damn huuurts.

— Kill the traitors!

— All of······.

— ······.

Yes.

I wanted to live long.

I admit it.

As it so happens, I was talented with magic?

I was also a girl who was at a good age to be used as a sacrifice?

Aha.

If eternal life is assured as long as His Majesty Demon Lord doesn’t die, then I obviously had zero reasons to not form a contract, right? I had dashed to His Highness Marbas who, in the past, had once ruled my homeland and formed a contract with all I had. Well, he’s probably forgotten about someone like me by now.

Have we sinned to such a deep extent?

If we had sinned, then it was probably the sin of trying to live a bit longer, but if that’s a sin, are all of the people who’re living their lives while panting innocent? All right. Let’s say that I’m a crazy bitch. What’s the relation between a year of famine and me being a crazy bitch? How is me being a crazy bitch related to you guys suffering from a contagious disease and dying in some corner? Fuck.

Shit.

“······.”

That fire.

That tic, tic sound from the fire is the problem.

Why do people always try to burn people who they don’t want to see? That’s really a problem.

Do I, does she, do we have to actually say that it hurts when we are burned in order for us to prove that we are also the same living and breathing beings as you? Do we have to confirm our lives with our pain?

— You are a bunch who should not have been born into this world.

— Is there truly no feeling of sorriness for the lives of others in your minds?

Paimon.

Aah, what benevolent words.

Her Highness. Indeeed. We also think that we are a race that should have not been born into this world. Sheesh, hey. Sheesh. Even if we scream out that we are in pain, it must be quite comfy for you, since to you, we are a completely different kind. Those words are correct. What does it matter?

Truly, who will 相關 with us?

(TL note: 相關 – Associate/Relate)

Drugs are good.

Drugs, are physical things that block mental things.

I smoked when I wanted to smoke and made money. I killed when I wanted to kill people and earned money. Let’s pass this life smoking and killing, let us girls, who no one will associate with, gather together and play. If no one will associate with us, that means that we don’t have a world to associate with either. If that is the case, then we just have to go wherever our bodies lead us and die with a bang······there was a witch who had said this while giggling.

It was me.

I’m still alive after having said that.

— I will give you the remaining half once the task is completely over.

Ah.

Really. Ehem. That’s really.

For someone like a Demon Lord to cheaply mess around with money······ Ehei, ei. You shouldn’t do that. How can someone called the Demon Lord of Benevolence be such a cheapskate? If someone behaves that cheaply, then even the likes of us won’t stay still.

— Dantalian had personally wiped the dirt off of you all earlier today, and yet, you all had betrayed that Dantalian. Do I have even the slightest reason to place my trust in you?

Mm.

Weeell.

Hm.

Ahahah?

That’s right.

There’s no doubt.

Her Highness is right.

It’s okay, it’s okay. There’s absolutely! No problem at all. If a person has betrayed another, then it’s only natural that they should be betrayed in return. That’s the moral principles of the world······! The moral principles of all creation······! As expected of a Demon Lord who rules over everything in the world, their words are mysterious and marvelous······. Ahah! Even if the likes of us are peasants who live huddled up in the shade of some alleyway······ since we go around calling ourselves witches, since we are eternal subjects to Their Majesties Demon Lords who are the lords of all of demonkind······ how could we possibly disobey the voice of a king, how······?

Why?

Why don’t they save us?

“······.”

No.

Wait.

I mean······ mm, no. I don’t like this feeling. When I looked around, the other girls were also bunching up their shoulders. This is why silence isn’t good. Furthermore, the environment wasn’t good.

Darkness. Fire.

The sound of fire.

The sound of slaughter and death.

This isn’t good.

Objectively.

It’s already been several hundred years, so I don’t remember that well, but despite my looks, you know, I was once a talented individual who was living a promising life as an up-and-coming mage. It’s necessary for mages to have the refinement to look at themselves objectively. I have a damn good memory as well.

From an objective point of view.

Witch Humbaba, as a witch who has lived for over 300 years, if a normal person could live for 300 years, then they would have increased their knowledge by reading books and would most likely be a prominent scholar or something even more by now, but, ah, surprisingly, this bitch had put all of the time she was given into sexual relations and drugs.

All right.

It worked well.

This, it’s uncertain whether it’s because of this bitch’s innate indecisiveness or because of her acquired drug addiction, but if there’s one thing that’s certain, then⎯⎯⎯my dear fellow witches⎯⎯⎯this woman called Humbaba has proved how far a person can fall into being trash and, at the same time, has also proved the fact that a brain doesn’t particularly exist that much in her own skull. Isn’t that impressive?! Ladies, please consider the fact that it’s quite difficult for a person to prove even a single truth in their lifetime. Humbaba has really made a tremendous achievement!

Objectively.

Even if you look at it objectively, my life is.

“······.”

Honestly.

Ladies, I honestly think that mankind should someday applaud this insane witch. Ah, this girl’s life is like getting two birds with one stone where she achieves a gwan bak in a pi bak. You ladies are also well aware, right? Because you ladies as well, although it may not be to the same extent as this witch, are also bitches who have beautifully accepted your lives in the trash like this witch has, right? The reason why the old saying ‘birds of a feather flock together’ isn’t wrong⎯⎯⎯.

(TL note: ‘gwan bak’ and ‘pi bak’ are terms used in a Korean card game called ‘Go-Stop’. The move referenced here is a move that x4 your points)

Even if you look at it objectively, my life is fucked up.

······.

It’s hot.

Fuck.

······.

It’s probably this way because it hasn’t been long since the spring rain had ended. The moisture is really at the level of being steam, sheesh, hey. Sheesh.

Shit.

······.

Swamp.

The world is sticky like a damn swamp.

What my senior had said was right. There’s only mud no matter where you place your foot and there’s only muddy water no matter where you shove your mouth. I had thrown my life away there. Yup. So what?

······.

Who.

Who will save us here?

Those people, they aren’t torturing us because they’re especially bad scum······ I know. I am well aware. But they still set us ablaze. They burned us well. That’s quite the problem. The fact that the people who burned us aren’t especially bad scum······.

The fact that there is no end······.

The fact that there is no bounds······.

Ah, truly, the fact that there is no end or bounds······.

······.

Shit.

······.

············.

························.

It seems, I dozed off a bit.

When I looked around, the other witches were also twisting their bodies. Seeing how the night was still dark, it seems that time hadn’t flowed by that much. But why was I······ is the thought that went through my head before I turned my head to see Master Dantalian still deep in thought without moving even an inch.

Ah, that’s right.

I can’t interfere with our master’s contemplating.

Wow.

Even I have to admit that there’s no loyal subject as impressive as us. My word. That’s why, even though it feels like not that much time had passed, it means that I managed to resist my urge to do drugs for that long. I admit it. Since I’ve managed to hold myself back this much, wouldn’t Master tolerantly forgive me even if I started smoking right now? Yup······ I’m certain. Because.

— I heard that you girls betrayed me. Why did you do it?

Because Master is a loose individual.

Because, the reason why, is because we were starving for gold. Master. Because we got greedy.

The more gold you have, the better. They say that the people who don’t have to worry about the safety of tomorrow will not be avaricious, but since us humble witches are not in a position where we can rest easy over tomorrow, we are always greedy. That is the livelihood of the people who live in an alleyway while poorly lowering themselves. How could hoping for tomorrow be excessive avarice? Are the likes of us, in truth, living undeserved lives, or is life itself something that the likes of us don’t deserve in the first place? Is it excessive greed for the likes of us to want to live?

— Oh, these imbeciles.

— Since you all have gone against the military order, you must pay the penalty. Bring a cutting board. I will cut a single finger from all of you.

Master.

Our master.

— Since your lifespans are long, you will one day meet your life-long partner. Even if that life-long partner were to confess their love and propose to you, you now no longer have the finger to put a ring on. You are forever crippled. Repent in dust and ashes for the foolishness of not having cherished a bond and having hastily betrayed it. You will understand this feeling when you meet the one you love.

Ah.

Mm.

·········.

If no one will associate with us anyway, then we too will have no world to associate with, so we can throw the world away with ease, but now my fellow witches are tilting their heads at the world they had already half-abandoned.

There, is nothing but Hell if you go there······I could not tell them this.

If we’re lowly beings no matter where we go and where we head, then we should just become the lowest of beasts. However, because there is someone who has made us a part of their family, my comrades are letting go of their gold pouches one by one.

Girls, are you okay with letting go of even those? Really? Do you have the confidence to cross the world, without even those······I could not worry about them like this.

Because I was already in this state and shape.

I couldn’t possibly tell them. Worry about them.

⎯⎯⎯Swamp.

The world is sticky like a damn swamp,

and my ankles are still sticky because of the swamp.

I want to get out of this, but it’s not that easy. Even if I freed myself, what the world would be like after my freedom, what it could become, and who it could become, I didn’t know these things. I don’t know.

This was what I simply didn’t know.

“Humbaba.”

“······.”

“Humbaba.”

“······.”

“Hey. Captain of the Royal Guard. Oh, what is this? Look here. I am calling out to you, but why are you not answering? Hey. You damned girl. Humbaba.”

Plop.

“······Acho?”

My head felt something weird. It seems that something which wasn’t particularly solid or particularly squishy had hit the back of my head. When I looked to confirm what it was, it turned out to be a person’s eyeball.

“Hoi?”

Well, that’s if you can call the single eyeball that had come out of a head all on its own and had strongly exerted its presence a person’s eyeball.

What is this supposed to be?

I couldn’t possibly imagine how uglier it could be if this disgustingly dirty-looking thing was inside the mug of a living person. I’m deducing that this is probably the eye of an exceedingly noisy bastard. I don’t know why he died, but I’m definitely certain that he kicked the bucket because he deserved to die.

“Oi, look here.”

“Ah. Yes, Master?”

Before I knew it, I had answered instinctively.

Once I turned my gaze, I saw that our master was rolling a clot of blood in his left hand. If I lowered my gaze a sliiight bit, I could see some guy’s decapitated corpse lying dead on the ground and if you examined him a bit more carefully, then, if you excluded his lack of a neck, he was mostly normal-looking except for a single thing. The only notable thing about him was the fact that he was missing a single eye on his face.

Dear God.

“······Master. Dooon’t tell me, did you pluck an eyeball from a corpse and throw it at me just so you could wake me up a second ago?”

“I did not pluck it. It came out of the corpse on its own, girl. Are you trying to draw me out into being some mental patient?”

“In any case, that still means you did actually throw that eyeball. Dear God. Dear Lord. Even if you list every item that could be used to wake someone up and spread them out before you, I don’t think a person’s eyeball would be a part of that list, and yet, of all things, that was what Master had thrown. In short, it means that Master is an individual who has diverged greatly from the realm of common sense.”

Ah.

I’m talking to someone.

I feel happy.

“Furthermore, this one refers to people who have diverged greatly from the realm of common sense as perverts. In that regard, tadaah, it has become proven that Master is a pervert. Ahahah. Didn’t this one end the demonstration quite spectacularly?”

“”Huwaa······ what?”

“What do you mean what?”

“It seems our master has finally finished thinking, yeah?”

“It seems our master has finally been proven to be a pervert, yeah?”

“Instead of saying that it was finally proven, I feel like you should say that it was proven once more. One plus one equals two, but people don’t say that they’ve finally proved it when they do that equation. In short, it means that within the world of truth, one plus one equals two is an equation that has been worn out so much that it’s like a whore. Similarly, in our physical world, our master’s perverseness is nearly on the level of a whore, and could possibly be a proposition that is even more worn out than that. Wow. I was perfectly logical just now.”

“What? Master’s whoreness has finally been proven?”

“The fact that it’s difficult to discuss the truth with these fellows isn’t even remotely surprising. They’re crazy bitches after all.”

The other witches started to chatter away as well. Ah, it can’t be helped, these girls have a terminal illness where they’ll die if they don’t rattle on after all.

Our master let out a big sigh.

“Humbaba. It seems I will have to live a bit more busily from now on. I shall alleviate my busyness somewhat by utilizing you girls, so heed my command.”

Master’s order.

I had to smile as prettily as I could.

“Yes, Master. Please command uuss.”

“At the least, you have lived for several decades, and at the most, you have wasted your time for 300 years. You should have made quite the name for yourselves even among your fellow witches and you should also have rather heavy personal connections.”

“Yes, that is the case?”

“Send a familiar to every witch that you know.”

Our master spoke.

“I shall make a home for you all.”

“······.”

“I do not have the time to handle every little thing that either Elizabeth or Sitri does. I intend to deal with everything all at once. I plan to drop all of that into a pot as we withdraw into the mountains. At that time, I intend to use you girls with care, and in return, I shall promise you all a home.”

“······.”

“So busy. Things will become quite hectic.”

Master started to mutter to himself as if he had fallen into thought once more.

“For starters, I will have to go and secure the mind of that daughter of mine over there who is pounding away at those keys. It is my damned fate. I will persuade Barbatos and Paimon while I am on the way······ I see this will be a battle of speed. We will have to earnestly push ahead. Although there is the issue of how we are going to pack up the supplies. Ehem, that will work out somehow······.”

Plop.

Master threw the last remaining eye of the beheaded corpse and it landed in a puddle of mud. The mud that had scattered into the night air was illuminated by the burning torches for a moment. If seeing things is the duty of an eye, then that is probably something raw that has not fulfilled its duties. The eyeball let out an audible sound as it rolled through the pool of mud before coming to a halt.

Forever.

“Humbaba.”

“Yes, Master?”

“I heard that in order to become a witch, one must form a contract with a Demon Lord. Which Demon Lord did you form a contract with?”

“Uh······. It was Demon Lord Marbas. A noble personage. Albeit this one had formed the contract around 300 years ago and was already liberated 200 years ago.”

“Liberated?”

“Yes. That, uhm······. The Black Death has been going around since last year, right? That wasn’t the only time something like that had happened. Massive plagues and years of famine occasionally happen, and every time they do, regardless of their race, all of demonkind get really damn upset. Despite that, things like this are natural disasters. Since nothing could be done.”

They made it so that something could be done.

By creating a sacrificial sheep, they turn them into the very first person to have brought the plague from the outside and spread it. They are also turned into the heretics who had committed an impious crime towards the Gods and brought a drought to the land.

That is the origin of witches.

Originally, it was the Greater Beings, in other words, the Demon Lords who would have to take the role as ‘the ones responsible’.

But that is impossible.

Demon Lords are sacred and inviolable representatives that symbolize absolute dignity. In other words, lords that command all of demonkind. The various plagues and years of famine that happen down on the earth are unrelated to the lords. If there’s someone in the wrong, then it’s most likely someone else, and if there is no one else, then, well, just make one.

Condemned, slandered, tortured, and a double helping of torture.

In order to pacify the people who had died during an epidemic and the people who had fallen during a year of famine. Peasants that were contracted for the sole purpose of being tortured. That’s what we witches are. We also think that we’re quite the amazing political tools.

Someone has to take responsibility anyway.

Someone does.

Imagine the town square being serene like any other day even though your old mother had passed away due to the plague. You’d be angry. That’s why, when the state of affairs is chaotic, there has to always be at least one witch tied up in a town square for a territory to be somewhat managed properly.

The demon society is superior thanks to this. This fact is clear if you look at how the debased humans have had to change their society constantly, while us demons had no need to flip our society over for the past millennia. We may be peasants, you know, in spite of our appearances, you know, we’re peasants who serve the lords of demonkind. Even if we’re similarly peasants, it’ll hurt our pride a bit if you compare us to half-breeds.

Ahaha.

I do admit it’s a bit fucked up.

“Yes. Liberated. When we form a contract with a Demon Lord, we normally do so after setting a contract period. This one had acted as a sacrifice for 150 years before I was liberated and allowed to live however I pleased afterward. Aha, since the rest of this one’s life was assured after having been tortured for barely more than 100 years, this one······believes, it······was a profit.”

I closed my mouth.

Since Master’s eyes weren’t really smiling.

I slowly opened my mouth while thinking about what I should say.

“······It’s the same for everyone else, you know?”

Master’s eyes still weren’t smiling.

Was that the wrong answer?

“It’s the low and humble task that we had carried out because we had chosen to do so, you know?”

Wrong answer.

“150 years is actually appropriate. Because there are Demon Lords who hit witches and witches who hit Demon Lords, 150 years is appropriate and it seems everyone has also accepted this. You see Euryale over there? She’s the worst of the worst. She had formed a contract that lasted for 220 years.”

Wrong answer.

“Doesn’t the way of the world all roughly go by like that?”

Wrong answer.

“······.”

A stillness fell over us.

Our master looked around carefully. Witches who were inherently part of the Berbere Sister Witches. New witches who had joined us last winter. Adding them all up, a total of forty-one witches were gazing blankly at our master.

Forty-one.

Forty-one vestiges of plagues and years of famine.

Forty-one curses.

“······.”

Master Dantalian looked at me.

With his eyes that remained black even when illuminated by the light.

“I shall gift to you, my witches, a domain.”

“······.”

“Will you follow me?”

I believed that I overheard eternity from that sound.

▯King’s Beloved Sword, Human, Laura De Farnese

Empire Calendar: Year 1506, Month 4, Day 10

Polles, Bruno Plains, Army of the Crescent Alliance

— ······.

This young lady had no way of knowing when her performance had begun.

However, there was one thing that was certain. Sweat. Sweat was flowing down the nape of this young lady’s neck. The sweat was prominently distinct.

When sweat trickled down the nape of this young lady’s neck, it was like the flickering of a snake’s tongue. It left its mark as it lengthily flowed down, and as it lengthened, it extended time. It was a time that extended from the nape of this young lady’s neck and down to her back. Instead of flowing in time, the drops of sweat felt as if they were gathering up time on this young lady’s body as they attempted to crawl through the world and pierce through it.

This young lady was performing. After the drops of sweat had flowed down, it was then and only then that time seeped into the long line mark which they had left behind. This young lady’s time branched into many different paths and gathered at the small of this young lady’s back.

This young lady pressed down on the piano keys.

— ······!

An electric shock occurred. This young lady was soaked. Electricity easily surged through the small of this young lady’s back as it was drenched in sweat. As the drops of sweat pooled and everything spread as electricity flowed through the place where time was staggering along, it felt as if this young lady was living a life solely through electricity.

This young lady pressed down on the piano keys once more.

— ······!

This young lady’s heart pounded. Thump, the sound of heartbeats resonated more dully than this young lady’s dull ears. What is this? What could this be? How cute it is······. This young lady pressed down on the keys again. Thump······. A pulse spread throughout this young lady’s time. As this young lady felt as if she were living her life while the pulse was spreading, this young lady felt as if her life was simply a life that lived through the sound of heartbeats.

Solely like electricity.

Simply the sound of heartbeats.

— ······, ······!

— ······! ···, ······!

Screams kept erupting around me.

However, were those really screams? Could they not have been shouts of excitement? As this young lady was infected by excitement as those people continued to scream, those were undoubtedly shouts of excitement and not merely screams. So shout more. Scream louder. Although this young lady had no way of knowing when her performance had begun, this young lady will perform while always swallowing your screams with a snake’s maw.

Always.

Give this young lady time. This young lady will willingly be shocked.

Give this young lady life. This young lady will gladly shed blood.

And············.

And······.

And.

Step.

And, this young lady heard the sound of footsteps. Perhaps this young lady had felt it instead of having heard it. This young lady was uncertain as to which it was. Similar to how even if you close your eyes you can still distinctly feel when a finger is approaching your eye due to an electrical current-like sensation, this young lady felt as if the footsteps were heartbeats. Because the sound of footsteps was headed towards this young lady.

The footsteps approached. Step······. As it quietly approached, the sound of footsteps left ripples on the surface of the melody that this young lady had spread out. The sound of footsteps was directed straight at this young lady. Who was it? Someone is coming to this young lady. Who could they be to be approaching this young lady? Do they know where this is? Are they coming her while aware of who this young lady is?

This young lady, this young lady had dug into books to such an extent because she wanted to accept all of the sounds that approached her. This young lady hoped that among the things she had accepted there would be someone’s voice. However, as the sound of footsteps was not the language of Sardinia, the language of Habsburg, the language of Francia, the language of Anatolia, the language of Castile, the language of Brittany, the language of Batavia, the language of Tueton, the language of Bernicia, the language of Moscow, or the language of Kalmar, it felt as if this young lady, who was well-versed in every language, could not master the sound of footsteps.

The sound of footsteps did not have their own nationality and it felt as if there were no borders which they could not cross. How could one possibly put a border on the sound of someone approaching another? How······?

Step.

They are approaching again. They are approaching one step at a time. Each time the footsteps approached, this young lady intuitively felt that her song was ending. The sound of footsteps pulled the melody like a net to this young lady’s ankles and drew near. The world shrunk each time that approached. Ah. Another step.

Behind this young lady’s back.

Directly behind her.

After stroking the back of this young lady’s neck.

“Farnese.”

A breath touched this young lady’s ear.

“It is time for you to wake up from your performance.”

And this young lady opened her eyes.

It was then that this young lady realized that she had been closing her eyes.

“······.”

Once this young lady raised her head and looked around, the very first thing to pierce this young lady’s eyes was the light. It was only after that did the shade of the night sweep over. That is so. It was late in the night. Was this not strange? This young lady had started her performance only a short while ago and the sky at that time was definitely a mixture of both red and blue and not a dark gray.

“It seems you have been enjoying yourself quite a lot.”

The sound of laughter came from behind. This young lady turned around. His Lordship was standing there.

“Milord.”

“What is it?”

“······What time is it?”

“It is just past midnight.”

The noise that was occurring around this young lady gradually became clear. Demons were being decapitated here and there. It was the scene of a purge. Barbatos and Paimon were seated on judgment seats like a pair of judges, and each time a verdict fell, the neck of a criminal would fall as well. This young lady’s surroundings were unfamiliar to her, making it feel as if she were a foreigner who had suddenly been placed in an unfamiliar place of exile.

“Milord.”

This young lady felt relaxed each time she uttered this word. It was a comfortable enunciation. Although this young lady did not know what the current time was and where she was at, regardless of the time and where this was, the eyes that were gazing at this young lady were His Lordship’s eyes and the hand that was stroking this young lady’s head was His Lordship’s hand.

The world was originally Hell and as there was no path to disimprisonment from there, this young lady realized that within this world that was Hell, the only place where you could reach disimprisonment for a moment was between people. Ah. Hell was a sea of fire and there was an island between people.

“Milord.”

If this young lady called out to the island like this.

“Yes?”

An echo came back to her.

Aah.

His Lordship was originally a person who had been banished from the world and exiled to an uninhabited island. This young lady had thought that. Once that thought came to mind, that thought felt much too right. If that island was still called 無人 even if His Lordship was by himself on that isle, it feels as if the island could still be called a 無人島 even if His Lordship and this young lady were both on the island together.

(TL note: 無人 = no person 無人島 = uninhabited isle)

This young lady had obtained a home.

It was this young lady’s first home since she was born.

“······Milord.”

“Are you broken somewhere? Why are you helplessly saying ‘milord, milord’ over and over again? Yes. I am your lord, and you lad, are my acting general. As it is your broken life, it is all my lack of virtue.”

“It would be more right to refer to this young lady as a lass and not a lad.”

“So those are going to be your first words? What a spiteful fellow. It is not even remotely surprising that the first words out of your mouth are not proper words at all.”

This young lady opened her mouth.

“This young lady has completely basked in all of the beauty which she can enjoy in the world just now. Milord. Please take this young lady’s life right now.”

“······.”

“This young lady wishes to be strangled to death by Your Lordship’s hands.”

The smile on His Lordship’s face subsided. His eyes that resembled the night sky were staring intently at this young lady. Due to there being a surface on His Lordship’s pupils, which is something that cannot be found in the night sky, this young lady was being reflected on that black surface. Tears were flowing down this young lady’s face.

Press.

His Lordship pressed his finger between this young lady’s eyes. The area where his finger touched was a bit hot. The heat flowed in an arch as it followed the outline of his finger.

“Farnese.”

“Yes?”

“Are you a corpse or a doll?”

“······.”

That was the curse which the Imperial Princess of the Habsburg Empire had spat at this young lady a few days ago. As this young lady could not answer this question by herself, she had asked His Lordship, however, he too did not answer and gave this young lady a question in return.

His Lordship spoke.

“Are you not a person?”

“······.”

“Do you wish to die?”

This young lady buried her face into His Lordship’s chest.

Heated substances continued to flow.

This young lady was drenched.

“This young lady wants to live······ to live on, Your Lordship. This young lady, wishes to live······. It keeps hurting······ it is this painful, and yet······ why, does this young lady want to continue living······ why······.”

“Yes. I knew that you were dreadful the day I laid my eyes on you for the first time.”

His Lordship stroked this young lady’s head.

This body which the Imperial Princess had cursed.

“Live.”

The Demon Lord baptized this young lady.

“I shall make you live.”

This young lady slowly blacked out as she was buried in His Lordship’s embrace.

And as she blacked out,

this young lady believed that she should continue to live.

▯Demon Lord of Honor, Rank 5th, Marbas

Empire Calendar: Year 1506, Month 4, Day 10

Polles, Narew River Valley

It was late in the night.

The Demon Lords were silent. Even when they spoke, the Demon Lords did so while not looking at one another, but by simply staring absent-mindedly at the candlelight placed on the table.

My subordinates wordlessly watched the sight of yellow candle drippings flowing down the side of the candle and landing on the table. Although candle drippings flowing down was a trivial occurrence, as it was an incredibly obvious happening, it felt like no one here could hinder or stop it.

“Your Highness. It appears that the confidential letter was true······.”

A commander spoke up in a low voice. His countenance appeared as if he were ashamed.

It was not just him alone. All of the Demon Lords who were gathered under the flag of the Neutral Faction were pitifully muttering something. As they could not speak their minds to someone else, their mutterings were closer to being monologues.

“I cannot believe it. Did they truly purge 7 Demon Lords?”

“Ehem, Barbatos may be that sort of personage, but for even Paimon to······.”

“What do they intend to do with the troops that were led by the people who were purged?”

A countless number of soldiers were being executed at Bruno Plains.

That was what was written in the confidential letter. Hundreds of our fellow demons were either being hung to death at the gallows or were already dead.

The scenery of execution was especially cruel as the lives of the humble and the lives of the nobles were not distinguished and were instead tied together, this was also mentioned in the confidential letter. It was a letter that was sent by a person whom I had known for a long time, so it was undoubtedly true.

“······.”

Normally, as the leader of a single army, it was my duty to recover the morales of my subordinates. However, it was difficult for even me to escape this silence.

Gusts of wind shook throughout the night sky and let out a bleak sound. As the wind shook, it felt as if the distant foul scent of corpses had been harbored and was being carried over. I simply trembled in anger. All of that foul scent had burst out during my absence.

“What should be done, Your Highness?”

The Demon Lord who had a rough beard and was also the one who had worked together with me in the battlefield spoke in a hoarse voice.

“Barbatos is a violent, closed-minded person. However, when the Crescent Alliance raises its flag with the natural bones of our soldiers, Barbatos is always much more respectable. It was reported that Barbatos and Paimon had joined hands yesterday and punished our fellow Crescent Alliance comrades, but I am certain that they were most likely not comrades, but traitors. If they were traitors, then the reason to rebuke Barbatos would be unmerited. Would it not be wrong to clash arms against our own kind?”

I questioned him.

“What if they were not traitors?”

“······.”

“What if they were traitors? Would that also not be a problem? Would that not mean that starting from Baal, the other Demon Lords in the backline are all traitors of the demon continent?”

“······.”

“If the already dead 7 Demon Lords were not traitors, then we will have to punish Barbatos and Paimon, and if they were traitors, then we will now have to turn our war horses around and punish the Demon Lords in the rear. It would all be the flesh of demonkind even if we cut down what is in front of us and even if we cut down what is behind us. You stated that we should not clash arms against our own kind, but who are the ones who are forcing us to do this? Is it not Barbatos and Paimon?”

“······.”

Bang!

I could not hold back my rage any longer and slammed the table as I stood up.

“Are Barbatos and Paimon sane?! Are they not beheading our comrades because they are sane?!”

The Demon Lords warily glanced at one another. However, there was no one who would answer that question. By avoiding my gaze and not answering my question, they wanted for my wrath to flow by naturally.

They were foolish.

By erasing their gazes and their answers, would that also erase the scenery which had unfolded due to the executions on the other side of the plains? Even if the sun rises today as it had yesterday, would the blood that had already been shed on the earth all evaporate?

“Fine. It is fine now. Order our troops to advance. I shall personally go and reprimand Barbatos and Paimon.”

“Advance······? Your Highness, what do you mean······?”

My subordinates could not hide their anxiety and had started to panic.

“Not even a day has passed······.”

“Your Highness. The Mountain Faction and the Plains Faction are the main forces of our allies. How could we possibly point our spears forward and approach them? Your Highness’ words are distressful. Please consider matters once more.”

“I do not consider the bandits who have beheaded our comrades as allies.”

“Your Highness!”

My men were startled.

Once I stated that I was going to drive into the military headquarters of the Crescent Alliance while accompanied by my troops, the ones who could not answer my questions earlier started to hastily blurt out lines. Although the area was silent as the forest exuded a thick scent of pine, solely the Demon Lords were in a rush.

“The humans are encamped across the Bruno Plains, so we will ultimately face utter defeat if our forces were to fight among themselves now. We have committed a grave crime by losing once during the winter. How will we endure the sin this time? Your Highness, please.”

“As we cannot know why Paimon had punished those seven Demon Lords since we have not carefully listened to her reason, if there were a cause, then should we not hear it first? She is not a lady who would act without reason. Since she has apparently beheaded those people under the pretext that they were traitors, then there must definitely be an incentive. Your Highness, please show some discretion.”

······No, these fellows. Are these fellows afraid?

I turned my head and glanced at the commanders. From what I could tell, it seems they were cowering at the news that the Plains Faction and the Mountain Faction had joined hands.

“Do you intend to disobey?”

I glared at my subordinates. Once they met my gaze, they automatically shut their mouths. Although my subordinates had several mouths, the silence they all emitted had fused together and made the air around us heavier and heavier.

“If need be, we are capable of furthering our connections with the rear, but they cannot. Even if the supply lines are cut, it would be theirs that would be cut first. Even if they intend to withdraw, they will have to do so while shaking off the pursuit of the humans, but do you think we will simply watch over that? This is a military order from the leader of the army. Do as I tell you without question.”

The commanders lowered themselves to the ground. A commander who did not state his official rank remonstrated in a sorrowful voice as he stuck his nose close to the ground.

“Your Highness. At the very least, please allow them to have a single day for a leave of absence. Bestow them a day and allow them to beg for forgiveness and apologize. Even if we must fight when one occurs, we must maintain a mature appearance if we are to be honorable in the future.”

“······.”

A single day of absence.

Truly, even if we grant them a day or two, are they fellows who would wear white mourning gowns and ask for expiation? This was something which I did not ask my men. I was aware that they were not that sort of monarch, and my subordinates were aware of that as well. However, my subordinates were pleading to me with hoarse voices that I should play my part with honor.

Honor towards those who have beheaded one’s comrades, is it······?

I, suddenly felt exhausted and sat back down. Once I covered my eyes with my hand, I felt my thick skin pressing against the palm of my hand. It was my skin that had been swept and had swelled over the ages.

“······I understand. At the least, a single day is most likely what the value of being on the same battleground as them for the past several centuries is. I shall write a separate letter and send it to them. You all may leave and get some rest.”

“Thank you, Your Highness.”

“One day.”

I cut my words short and spat them out.

The commanders froze.

“Once midnight passes tomorrow, we shall immediately round up our war horses and strike them. Bear in mind that although you may rest in your quarters today, it is solely a rest in preparation for the night attack. Inform the soldiers of this as well.”

“As you command.”

The commanders left the tent one by one with their backs lowered. Before long, the only ones to remain in the tent were myself and a couple of servants who assisted this body.

“······.”

Through the cracks between my fingers, I gazed at the entrance of the tent which was shaking due to the wind. A sentry was setting up a torch. The torches sharply surged upwards like a sharpened blade and split the darkness. However, as there was still darkness no matter how much it was severed and cut, in the end, instead of saying that the torch was slicing something, it looked more as if it were endlessly screaming at something.

Aah.

Once I wrote the letter, I spread open the piece of parchment and lamented.

Barbatos. Paimon.

For what actual cause have you done this?

TL note: THIS WILL BE LONG.

Thanks for reading this long chapter. Like I say with almost every DD chapter, this was rather difficult to translate. It’s never easy translating these monologues, but it’s always fun translating the witches chatting. Something about translating Humbaba’s POV felt easier than the others.

I’d like to note that those black pages were made like that on purpose. It’s supposed to have 0 spaces and 0 punctuations and the text is supposed to be nearly invisible. It’s exactly like this in the book as well, so translating that section was quite the experience. Good luck trying to piece together the words and sentences. You can try if you want, but you don’t really have to. These pages will come out again later on, but it’ll be more distinct at that time so you can read it properly then. I’ll post a pastebin of it as well when it comes out. I’m not going to provide it now since this is supposed to be a progressive experience. I had to struggle when I first read through it and so do you guys! Share the experience 100%

Furthermore, you may have noticed some Chinese letters in places, but the author had also done this on purpose. Most authors usually write the Korean word and then the Chinese characters in parenthesis next to it, but Yoo Heonhwa wrote only the Chinese characters in those parts, hence why I did the same. It’s a stylistic thing.

Also, as a side note, here’s an answer to a question some of you may have: No, I will not get rid of the black pages. Some people recommended that I should just use HTML codes but that would simply complicate this process much more and interfere with my translating pace. I don’t want to spend hours upon hours doing test and errors with HTML codes only to find out that wordpress just messes up the final result anyway. Making these PNGs is more efficient and much better to look at than some half-assed code. I’m able to see the finished product right away without having to go through this tedious back and forth progress of checking if my code worked or not. There were some foreign readers who complained that they couldn’t copy and paste my work into a machine translator for them to read in their language, but that’s too bad. I translate straight from my physical copy of the book, so I don’t have the luxury of ‘copy and pasting’. If you really enjoy the series, then you should be fine with going through the extra effort that even I’m constantly going through.

Empire Calendar: Year 1506, Month 4, Day 11

Polles, Bruno Plains, Army of the Crescent Alliance

“You know the old saying ‘Know thyself’? Dantalian, I believe that this proverb roughly translates to this.”

Barbatos spoke.

“When you’re screwed, you must quickly realize the fact that you’re screwed.”

I nodded.

“That is correct. What is important is how fast you realize this. However, the issue is, Your Excellency Barbatos, is that in order to know whether you are currently screwed or not, you must have had the experience of it beforehand. If one has not already experienced being screwed, then they will either end up being incapable of realizing that they are in a screwed situation, or even if they do realize it, they will realize a step too late. Therefore, in order to know thyself, you must experience being screwed many times.”

“Hm. If you consider the fact that I’ve experienced an incredible amount of screwed up situations in my life, I can’t really disagree with you there.”

Barbatos nodded.

“Continue.”

“Yes, Your Excellency. In conclusion, the term ‘Know thyself’ roughly translates to ‘Be screwed as many times as possible’. However, what is the reason we are trying to listen to proverbs in the first place? Is it not precisely because we do not wish to be screwed? Not only is the proverb ‘Know thyself’ meaningless, but it also destroys the meaning of existence for proverbs themselves. You could also say that it is the most worthless proverb in the world.”

“Dantalian. You’re reasonably good at sex and your face isn’t that bad either, so you have a lot of talents, but among your many many talents, the talent you’re best at is your technique to disguise bullshit so it doesn’t sound like bullshit. Even if the most nonsensical bullshit in the world were to flow through your tongue, it would sound like rubbish that is somewhat worth listening to, or it might even sound like trash that is really worth listening to. I, Barbatos, Rank 8th Demon Lord and the lord who boasts immortality, acknowledges this fact. Your smooth talking is easily on the level of being extraordinary.”

“I am honored, Your Excellency.”

Paimon, who was quietly listening to our conversation from the side, appeared as if her mind was blanking out. She then muttered.

“······What exactly are you two currently discussing?”

We both turned to look at Paimon.

“Nothing, whore.”

“Nothing, Your Highness.”

We then turned back to each other and continued.

“If you think about it, proverbs aren’t particularly useful. Proverbs are, in other words, pieces of advice that were made to be useful to as many people as possible, right? Then that means tons of people already know about these proverbs, and in the end, proverbs provide us with pieces of advice that you, I, and everyone else already know, so there’s no actual need for these pieces of advice in the first place.”

“Your words are reasonable beyond measure, Your Excellency.”

“Let’s say that I had said that the last thing which you can trust the most is money. If you simply listen to this line, then you’ll probably think that this is a somewhat obvious fact. However, if I were to splendidly write ‘The last thing man can trust the most is money’ and engrave this line into a pillar of a temple, then not only would this strangely sound like it wasn’t obvious, but because it feels obvious at a glance, it’ll instead appear as if it didn’t sound obvious at all. I, Barbatos, Rank 8th Demon Lord and the most distinguished lord in the demon continent, present this opinion. Are proverbs not all like this?”

“Surely. As expected of Your Excellency Barbatos. A wisdom that befits the lord who boasts immortality and is also the most distinguished Demon lord. Lowly foot soldiers would have no other choice but to stand in awe at Your Excellency’s insight. Let me try testing it out as well. You cannot win a war with tired soldiers, more so with hungry soldiers.”

“The enemy of my enemy is my ally.”

“If you think that you are an idiot, then you actually are an idiot.”

“Play. You will have fun.”

“Live. If you really want to live.”

Paimon looked at us with a face that appeared blanker than earlier.

“This lady has no idea what the two of you have been doing since earlier······.”

“Paimon is a whore.”

“This damn bitch······?”

Paimon struck Barbatos’ left cheek. Barbatos kicked Paimon’s right shin. Paimon struck Barbatos once more. Barbatos kicked Paimon once more. The space was then infinite.

10 minutes flowed by.

It was a meaningful 10 minutes.

“In any case, we have to know the fact that we’re screwed.”

Barbatos spoke while massaging her left cheek with some ice.

“That’s all I wanted to say. That we’re screwed. That old and bald-headed Marbas may be mad, but he’s firmly upset right now.”

“That is your problem, Barbatos. The fact that you talk needlessly crudely.”

Paimon wrapped a bandage around her right shin.

“Truly. Do you know how inefficient you are when speaking to people? Every time you utter a word, it becomes a waste of time.”

“Like how you waste your life every time you utter a word, bitch?”

“See? Again with your crude manner of speaking······. When this lady was going out with you in the past, this lady believed that it was because you were still young, that your way of speech had become aggressive because you had gone through a lot of perilous experiences at a young age. Thus, this lady thought that, with great magnanimity, she should be understanding of your behavior. However, seeing as there was no change despite 500 years having passed, it was not your experiences that were the problem, but simply your personality itself that was the issue. Your tongue is unnecessarily promiscuous.”

“Heeh. Like how your crotch is unnecessarily promiscuous?”

Paimon slapped Barbatos’ right cheek. Barbatos kicked Paimon’s left shin. Paimon slapped Barbatos once more. Barbatos kicked Paimon once more. Time was then eternal.

15 minutes flowed by.

It was a beautiful 15 minutes.

“Old man Marbas sent a letter a short while ago.”

Barbatos spoke while rubbing her right cheek with some ice.

“Should I even call it a letter? Plain and simple, it’s an ultimatum.”

“Marbas has always been a bit hard-headed.”

Paimon wrapped a bandage around her left shin.

“Although the things which he thinks are allowed do not always have to be allowed, the things which he has determined to be not allowed are unallowed no matter what. In good terms, he is a principlist.”

“In better terms, he’s a damn aggressive old fossil.”

Paimon nodded.

“And he is a bald old man.”

Barbatos nodded.

“And he’s a bald old man.”

Was that last comment absolutely necessary?

While internally giving all of the bald people in the world my deepest sympathy, I spoke.

“What was written in the ultimatum?”

“Seeing is believing.”

After unnecessarily uttering that line in a cool fashion, Barbatos tossed me the piece of parchment that was rolled up into a scroll. On the piece of parchment, a rage-filled handwriting was grandly strewn about it.

······I have set up camp in the fields and mountains a fair distance away from the battlefield. When you two had sent me to these fields and mountains, we had discussed a stratagem to strike at the enemy supply lines in order to create breathing room for our kind. However, looking at things now, you two had cast me away in order to strangle our kind.

The military order I was given was to smite the enemies. Now that you two have killed our comrades, I shall ask the two of you who my enemies are.

You two, who had unbecomingly argued when discussing the subject of conquering the human armies, became harmonized when slaughtering our own troops. Did you two start this war in order to behead our own kind? I ask you two this, is it the territory of the humans which you two desire or is it the territory of the demons?

Saying that my faction has the most cavalry, you two are the ones who had assigned my troops as the detached force. I now intend to gather this large number of cavalry units together and direct them towards the two of you. Do I have a reason why I should not do so?

Striking you two from behind and straightening the laws of the demon continent is an easy task. However, as we have fought together on the same battlefields for the past several hundred years, I have sent you two this final letter in order to tell you.

Be ashamed of yourselves. Wear the clothes of criminals and crawl your way to these fields and mountains and await your judgment. Answer everything which I have asked. If you two await your judgment and answer my questions, then I shall decide whether to behead you two or not······.

“I see. I understand now.”

I nodded.

“So this is why Your Excellency had mentioned the saying ‘know thyself’.”

“This is why you said that when you’re screwed, you have to realize the fact that you’re screwed.”

“Since we have grasped the situation, let us immediately discuss countermeasures. How does Your Excellency plan to resolve this? I recall that before carrying out the purge, Your Excellency had said that you would handle His Excellency Marbas.”

“Even if you believe that things will work out, not everything will be resolved—.”

“Although I do want to continue listening to Your Excellency impersonate the voice of some middle-aged old man since it is interesting, the situation is a bit too dire for it to be ignored by simply saying a proverb.”

“Fuck.”

Barbatos stuck out her lips and nodded.

“I don’t understand. How did he hear about the purge already? According to my calculations, no matter how fast the news got to him, we should have still had another quarter of a day left before he found out. This means that someone had secretly sent him a letter and told him about it.”

“A secret letter, huh······.”

For an instant, Demon Lord Sitri came to mind. The only reason for this was because I had clashed with her only a short while ago before coming here.

It was just after midnight.

Barbatos and Paimon were seated in chairs that were prepared for them outside. Even now, the subordinates of the traitors were being dragged in front of us before then being executed. From time to time, when the executioners turned to glance at Barbatos and Paimon with a ‘Should we really kill them’ look on their faces, the two Demon Lords would nod lightly. Barbatos and Paimon had nodded their heads several times already since a short while ago, and each time they did, the heads of the subordinates would be sent flying.

One of the subordinates had a frantic look on his face as he stretched his arm out towards us.

“Y-Your Highness! O Greater Being! This one, this one had met Your Highness when he was little! In Niflheim! When Your Highness was carrying out a triumphal celebration⎯⎯⎯.”

“Yeah, a confidential letter. If one of us didn’t hand over the information beforehand, then there’s no way that old man Marbas could have reacted this soon.”

Barbatos nodded.

There was a death throe and then there was the sound of something falling and rolling on the ground.

I stroked my chin.

“Does Your Excellency have an assumption on who it was?”

“I have noooo idea. In the first place, didn’t we do this purge in order to get rid of those types of bastards? How is it that the instant we wipe them out, there’s already another bastard present to sell us out? Is it perhaps that? Do the other Demon Lords have a hobby of selling people out whenever they’re bored? Is betraying your comrades trending right now?”

“Comrades refers to enemies who have yet to betray you.”

“Ah. That sounds somewhat like an actual proverb. It’s a bit fucked though.”

Haaa, Barbatos let out a sigh.

“Forget it, fuck. Let’s just forget everything. Those human bastards are swarming at the front and those traitors to our kind are flocking at the rear. Furthermore, among those who you think are your comrades-in-arms, there are insects who hastily write secret messages. Makes me wonder why I’m making myself go through this much hardship by going to war······.”

“This lady had told you so back when we were going out. That you should not behave impetuously with everything. You must broaden your mind a bit, Barbatos. The problem is that your mind is unnecessarily stiff.”

“And your problem is that your crotch is unnecessarily loose. Your crotch is so broad that even if all of heaven and earth went in there, it feels like there’d still be enough space for the universe. The foul stench which flows throughout the world every time you spread your legs can probably make those already dead corpses come back to life before twisting their limbs and dying once more.”

“Aha.”

Paimon smiled.

“In other words, you mean those corpses that had died because of the convulsions which had occurred due to having intercourse with your incredibly stiff crotch? This lady heard that the numbers reach approximately seven thousand. They say that the God Hades sends his regards to your crotch annually in order to show his respect, but have you considered visiting the underworld in order to express your gratitude to him? Right this instant, if you must.”

“This whore?”

“What are you going to do about it, you barren girl?”

“Why is it that there’s never a time where our opinions match? Since our opinions are the complete opposite no matter what the topic is, whenever we talk, it feels as if there’s a demon continent inside of us that’s split in half.”

“This lady has to reveal that she too feels the same way. That is why it feels as if the demon continent could live in unity if you were to disappear. However, this lady does not wish to go out of her way to dirty her hands so it would be wonderful if you went to some location unseeable to this lady and died on your own.”

“What’s worse is that our opinions differ even here. I want to just kill you with my own two hands after all. Even if you commit suicide, I’ll be happy if you do so after getting hit by me a bit first, and if you commit suicide before I can even hit you, then I’ll feel so cheated that I’ll just hit your corpse.”

“Boor.”

“Hypocrite.”

“Murderer.”

“Sex maniac.”

“Most rotten thing in the world.”

“And you’re the biggest bitch in the world.”

“Y-Your Hiiiiiiighnessss!”

And then another obscure nobody shouted.

“This humble servant has an old mother and a young daughter waiting for him back home, so this servant cannot possibly die yet. Please show mercy and⎯⎯⎯.”

“Do you truly wish to live like that? Barbatos?”

Paimon nodded.

There was a death throe, and then there was the sound of something rolling.

A marvelous staccato.

“Can you not live a life that is a bit better? This lady is referring to a more beautiful life. An elegant way of speaking. If you do so, then even your irremediable personality will become slightly beautiful.”

“I wonder. I’m not sure if I’m living like this because I want to live like this, but the fact that I don’t want to live like you, bitch, is clear. Rather than how I want to live my life, not wanting to live like someone else is the staple of leading my life. Especially when I look at you, the thought ‘let’s not live like this bitch’ is so strong that, in that regard, you’re the bitch who’s continuously extending my life and, in that regard only, are you a bitch that’s of any use.”

“The fact that your life is like trash is not surprising at all.”

“Yoour Hiiiiighnessss!”

Barbatos and Paimon nodded at the same time.

“So how should we deal with this?”

“So how should we respond to this?”

There was a death throe, and then the obvious sound of something rolling followed after.

A beautiful harmony.

“Marbas has military insight. He is experienced. If he becomes our enemy, then it would become troublesome for us in no small measure. Normally, we would resolve the situation through dialogue⎯⎯⎯.”

“He’s firmly pissed off right now. More than anything else, we don’t have a lot of time. The news about our purge will soon hit the entire region of the demon continent hard and the Demon Lords in the back will hastily try to gather troops. We have to cross the Black Mountains as fast as possible and return home before that can happen.”

Paimon nodded.

“We do not have enough time to persuade him.”

“And we don’t have the leisure to fight and win against him even more.”

“Although there is the possibility that he will forgive us if this lady and Barbatos were to wear white mourning garments and prostrate ourselves before him⎯⎯⎯.”

Barbatos nodded.

“We can’t. If we do that, then that would end up meaning that our purge was wrong. Why are we apologizing? Didn’t we just kill traitors? People who doubt us will start to appear and we’ll lose our justification. I don’t like that. We have to lead our punitive expedition through the demon continent with a fight of justifications anyway, but we’ll be at a disadvantage if we apologize.”

“Dantalian.”

“How are we going to deal with this problem?”

The two Demon Lords then gazed at me.

Me, the very person who had set this purge in motion.

“Of course, I’m not telling you to give us a solution right this instant.”

“However, we are pressed for time.”

If by a very slim chance the purge were to end in a failure, me, the one who would receive a blow more severe than anyone else.

With cold eyes.

“Midnight has passed. I’ll give you until midday today.”

“At the least, we will also have to devise a countermeasure before Marbas takes action, after all.”

“Until then, we’ll be handling the after-measures of the purge.”

“This lady apologizes. The time limit is excessively pressing.”

One of them was my sex partner,

and the other was my political partner.

The two were also figures of authority who both could purge 7 Demon Lords without any hesitation whatsoever at the same time.

As they were figures of authority that could blame someone without any hesitation if they had to blame someone, they could be cold when they had to be cold, and they were well aware of when to set themselves ablaze if they had to be hot. In other words, the lords of all of demonkind were obliquely staring at me.

“No matter how smart you are, I’m aware that this is a difficult request. But.”

“We must ask this of you, Dantalian. All of our fates are on the line.”

Therefore.

“······.”

Tap.

I pressed my thumb against my chin as if I were patting it.

⎯⎯⎯Slowly.

The scenery of the night flowed smoothly.

As if time had forgotten about its own speed.

Soldiers roamed around the encampment while holding torches. The military camp was illuminated by the torches located here and there, making it seem like summer fireflies were randomly flying about. Below each light, the subordinates of traitors had been caught and were being dragged. They were either dragged off and killed or dragged here and killed. A single group of soldiers snickered. A dark night. The snickering easily spread from the shadows. The underlings howled until their heads were severed, and in an instant, a death throe would resonate before coming to an abrupt halt.

Who is it?

Who is trying to bite me right now?

The purge had proceeded with extreme secrecy. If you did not have a high-ranking post like a Demon Lord, then you could not have found out about it. The traitors were all punished without exception, and yet, a letter had still reached Marbas. Although there were no traitors, there was a betrayal. Who was it? How?

Marbas had gathered his dispatched force and traveled a long distance away. Since he was constantly on the move, it was difficult to pinpoint his exact location. Despite that, the letter had properly gone straight to Marbas and⎯⎯⎯Marbas immediately believed the report of treason that was written in the letter. Why? Who was it?

How could he have trusted the report which stated that his comrades-in-arms of 500 years, Barbatos and Paimon, had caused a disaster without doubting the report even slightly? Is there someone he trusts more than Barabtos and Paimon? If there is, then who exactly is it? Who could possibly receive that much trust?

The last thing a person can trust the most is money.

“······.”

Tap.

I tapped my chin with my index finger.

Within the sensation and velocity of touching my skin, time became slower. I hastened my thought process.

Money. Military funds.

In the end, Barbatos, Paimon, and Marbas occupied the top government positions in their provinces. The financiers of the armies. Even this expedition of leading our troops for barely half a year had wasted a tremendous amount of supplies. However, these leaders had repeated expedition after expedition for more than 400 years. They should all be well aware of how important military funds are down to their cores.

You cannot win a war with tired soldiers, more so with hungry soldiers.

Thus there were a lot of firms throughout the demon continent. Groups of merchants that took full charge of the provisions and supplied them. Firms that loaned money to those who were lacking in military funds. There was a firm that was in charge of each respective Demon Lord, and in my case, it was the Keuncuska Firm. In the first place, the reason why Lapis Lazuli and I had met was due to that.

To merchants, war is an opportunity to make money.

“······.”

Tap.

I tapped my chin with my middle finger.

I searched through my memories. There was no doubt. There was a time and place where I had heard this. The information regarding which firm and merchant were in charge of Marbas. It was not because I had a particular interest in Marbas. It was a survival instinct. The firm and the merchant were coincidentally both quite important to me at that moment, and they were also in charge of ‘the person who was once severely hostile towards me’. Impressively, my survival instincts were forcing me to remember⎯⎯⎯.

“······.”

I then looked at the Demon Lord before me.

Paimon.

Rank 9th Demon Lord.

The woman who had accused me of the matter regarding the Black Death.

Once I looked at her, Paimon opened her mouth.

With a voice that sound three or four times slower than usual.

“······–······? Dan-tal-i-an?”

Paimon tilted her head ever so slowly.

I then remembered.

— Your Highness.

It was around the time I had met Lapis for the first time.

— If Your Highness does not repay the debt and interest or declare bankruptcy, then the Keuncuska Firm will have no other choice but to take Your Highness’ property and body by force.

The me at that time was in a completely different situation compared to now. I had no money. My life was hard-pressed. The urgency of my life had brought upon the criticality of time. I had to escape from my debt as soon as possible. In order to survive, I had hunted the game that was the easiest to tear apart.

— The Keuncuska Firm has a countless number of supporters. Amongst them, there are other Demon Lords like Your Highness.

— Rank 5th Demon Lord Marbas.

— And Rank 9th Demon Lord Paimon are also included.

A dark night.

Soldiers were going back and forth throughout the camp while holding torches. Similar to how the light was lengthily connected from torchlight to torchlight, my thought process was connected from point to point.

Underlings let out their final cries of agony. Decapitated heads fell endlessly. Lapis Lazuli’s voice flowed between the endless screams and boundless cries.

— Our firm is famous for being merciless to debtors who fail to make their payments.

— In the past, there was an incident where Rank ······ Demon Lord Glasyalabolas received a loan of ······Libra and did not pay back the interest for ······.

Screams. Cries. Noise.

But not yet.

Similar to a steel sword that had rusted due to the passage of time, my memories were scratched in various places. Since a long time ago, I have always been weak at memorizing numbers and doing calculations. Those parts of my memories were always the first to be worn down.

However, as a steel sword was still a steel sword even when rusted, it was sharp enough to kill a person and save my own life.

Think.

Remember it.

There are still words left for Lapis, for my memories, to tell me. What was said? What did Lapis tell me?

It was a dark night. Because Lapis was standing in a place that could not be seen, the sensation of her opening her mouth and whispering silently flooded over me. Within the space where torchlights and torchlights connected and swayed, I solely connected the light within the light.

— Your Highness.

— At that time, our firm had hired a small number of 9,000 mercenaries.

— And left them in the command of Rank 12th Demon Lord Sitri.

— Glasyalabolas could not even hold out for ······ before surrendering.

Tap.

I tapped my chin with my ring finger.

The wind blew. The torches flared up.

As they flared, the light created a long line.

Who wishes for the war to not end? Merchants.

Who is trying to interfere with the war right now? Marbas.

Which firm is in charge of Marbas? The Keuncuska Firm.

All right.

If that is the case, then who rules over the Keuncuska Firm?

I asked myself this.

I immediately answered.

Ivar Lodbrok.

An ancient vampire who has lived for several hundred years,

and the merchant who held the most hostility towards me before anyone else.

Oho. Oh dear. Would you look at this?

I quietly gazed at the band of light that was surging in our military encampment. Barbatos and Paimon, while slowly drawing their brows together, no, they were still endlessly drawing their brows together slowly, stared at me as I did that.

As I thought, Barbatos, Paimon, you two are clever. However, I shall offer you two my deepest condolences. The two of you have wound up misunderstanding something at a decisive area.

It was not a Demon Lord who had sent Marbas that letter. Ivar Lodbrok. It was the vampire who was in charge of Marbas and also did not desire for the war to end who had sent it.

I cannot blame these two Demon Lords for this misconception. Barbatos and Paimon had sincerely kept the matter regarding the purge under strict confidentiality. Only their close aides knew about it. If the information was leaked, then it was undoubtedly another Demon Lord who had done it, these two had jumped to this conclusion as if it were an obvious fact. This was their mistake.

Even if the only people who knew about the purge beforehand were the other Demon Lords⎯⎯⎯there is no reason whatsoever that the person to have sent the letter to Marbas had to have been the Demon Lord themself.

Instead of personally informing Marbas about the secret, all the information leaker has to do is lightly toss the information to the merchant who Marbas trusts. Because.

The enemy of my enemy is my ally.

That’s right.

Rank 12th Demon Lord Sitri.

Paimon’s close aide. The person who had learned about the purge faster than anyone else.

Most importantly, the enemy who is hostile towards me and is trying to bring me down.

— Your Highness.

— At that time, our firm had hired a small number of 9,000 mercenaries.

— And left them in the command of Rank 12th Demon Lord Sitri.

I do not know exactly when, but it was definitely since a very long time ago.

A relation that was close enough for the Keuncuska Firm to hire an army and leave them in that person’s command. A rare relationship that was so close that the person would strike other Demon Lords for the Keuncuska Firm and make those Demon Lords cough up money.

Since a very long time ago⎯⎯⎯the Keuncuska Firm and Demon Lord Sitri were ‘accomplices’ with a cozy relationship.

After Sitri had passed on the information regarding the purge to Ivar Lodbrok, Ivar Lodbrok had sent the letter to Marbas.

“······.”

Tap

It was at the moment my pinky had tapped my chin.

The world finally released an anxious sigh. The light returned to the light. The many sounds returned to the throes of death. Time had recovered its beating pace and flowed quickly.

As expected, Barbatos and Paimon stopped slowly drawing their brows together and spoke to me.

“Dantalian? What’s up with you all of a sudden?”

“Are you perhaps unable to hear this lady’s words?”

No.

I hear you loud and clear. So clear that I cannot hear you any better than this.

I raised the corners of my lips and smiled.

“Your Excellency ordered this one to take care of this matter before midday, correct? It is all right. Do not worry. I have a rough grasp on how things have proceeded after all.”

Both Barbatos and Paimon tilted their heads in the opposite direction from each other.

“What?”

“Pardon?”

As expected of the two women who were each other’s first love, their thought processing speed was also similar. Even the angles which they had tilted their heads in were alike. In short, they were the exact same degree of slowness.

Albeit, despite this fact, their thought processing speed was on the fast side. Is this not regrettable? The original speed is bound to be relative.

I spoke once more while matching their pace.

“Your Excellency Barbatos. Your Highness Paimon. This one has a general grasp of the situation. There is no need to wait until midday today. I shall take care of it within an hour, so please handle the preparations to withdraw with haste.”

“······Whaat? No, wait. Wait a second. ······What? You grasped the situation? What are you talking about? Don’t tell me, are you saying that you figured out who it was that leaked the information?”

I knit my brows slightly.

“That is the case, Your Excellency. I have said that with that exact meaning in mind. What other meaning could it possibly have? Have I ever ridiculed Your Highness with nonsense before?”

Barbatos shut her mouth.

Paimon spoke up from beside her.

“······How exactly? We have yet to carry out any sort of investigation. There are over 10 Demon Lords who could have possibly leaked the information. How could you have figured out who it was without having interrogated anyone?”

“My apologies, Your Highness Paimon, but investigations are actions that are carried out when one lacks information. Although this one may not know a lot of things, this one at least knows enough to figure out what must be known.”

“······.”

There was a moment of silence.

I let out a sigh.

“All right. When this one was born, this one was born possessing reasonable intellect. This one can easily figure out things which Your Excellency and Your Highness still do not know. As this is simply a fact, please accept it as so. For what reason is it that this one, who is at the tail end of ranks among Demon Lords, is able to have a private audience with lords and monarchs such as Your Excellency and Your Highness? Is it not because my noggin was appraised highly? It is nothing new. Please accept the fact that my brain has more creases than Your Excellency and Your Highness’ and let us first discuss countermeasures.”

“······That’s right. I completely forgot because I shoved you in a cell for the past week. Dantalian, although you’re reasonably good at sex and have a reasonably good-looking face, more than anything else, you’re a fucking annoying bastard.”

Barbatos sighed heavily.

“The Heavens are quite disturbingly fair. Even though they gave this bastard a good head and tongue, they forgot to package him with the most important thing, a good personality. Hey, you black lamb, if you were a bit more modest, then we would probably have had sex a hundred more times every time we did it.”

No.

I don’t need that kind of bonus. Seriously.

The ‘play’ which you forced me to do was so extreme that I honestly got freaked out every time we did it. Master or whatever. Telling me to treat you like a slave or whatever. It felt like she had a few loose screws in her head. I apologize, but even someone like me, who has both common sense and refinement, finds this to be difficult to endure.

“······So who is the culprit?”

It seems Paimon had regained her composure as she covered her mouth with her fan.

“No, rather than that, what did you mean when you told us to handle the preparations to withdraw with haste? Please explain it to us in a more calm and orderly manner.”

“I apologize, but I cannot tell Your Excellency or Your Highness about the culprit yet. Just know that this one promises to handle this issue perfectly.”

“Ah. Again. Look at this bastard roll his tongue again. Fuck, it wasn’t just once or twice that that had gotten the best of me.”

Barbatos scowled.

“How do you plan to deal with it? Are you telling us to simply believe in you with no questions asked? And what do you mean by withdrawing already? Do you not see us still dealing with those remaining pieces of garbage over there? Just those guys alone number in the thousands. The thousands. It’ll take the entire day just to wipe them all out.”

“That is what I wished to talk about, Your Excellency.”

I grinned.

“Do we really have to go out of our way to cumbersomely kill them all?”

“······?”

“Your Excellency and Your Highness. Please allow me to borrow your ears for a moment.”

Barbatos and Paimon looked straight at each other’s face.

They then, as I had expected, leaned their ears towards me at the same angle and speed.

I smiled benignantly as if I were presenting enlightenment to a couple of people who were lost in a cloud of thick dust.

Shortly after.

“⎯⎯⎯Crazy bastard. Insane bastard. Fucking bastard. No, seriously, when did you make something like that? You’re crazy, right? You’re insane, right? Fuck. How could you do that without my permission?!”

“······.”

Barbatos struck my cheek as if she intended to chew me alive right this instant. Paimon was simply gazing at me with a ‘woooow······ wow, woooow······’ expression on her face. Even though the directional nature of the two was the complete opposite, what they actually wanted to express was the same.

The fact that I was a crazy bastard.

“No! Absolutely not! Are you insane, you son of a bitch? Do you think I’d just sit here and allow that?! Get rid of it right this instant. No, hand it over. Hand it over to me!”

“Dantalian, this lady also believes that that is a bit too much······. No, of course, this is a fact that this lady was already aware of, but for your information, the only ones in the world who know of this fact are you, Dantalian, and this lady······. Barbatos had killed the rest.”

“And I’m going to kill you now!”

Barbatos grabbed me by the collar and shook me intensely.

Mm.

A man like myself was a man that had found that reconciling two Demon Lords who were once lifetime enemies was not enough and had the caring heart to even bring their personal opinions together in perfect harmony, but before I could be in awe with my own greatness, mm. I felt nauseous. I felt like I’d really throw up if she continued to shake me any more than this. My gastric fluid was shouting that they wanted to see the outside world as well.

I spoke calmly.

“Nevertheless, even if you say that. The method which this one had informed Your Excellency and Your Highness about is the most effective.”

“······.”

Barbatos froze in place.

Thanks to that, my urge to vomit was able to subside. I displayed a fresh smile. Every time I smiled like this, Lapis Lazuli would advise me in a serious tone, ‘······Your Highness, since that smile easily calls upon one’s desire to commit murder when witnessed, please refrain from doing so as much as possible’, but how could that possibly be the case? Since a long time ago, Lapis’ aesthetic sense was somewhat lacking in certain parts. When I smiled refreshingly, I knew how to actually smile refreshingly.

“Is that not so?”

“······.”

“Most importantly, there is no political burden whatsoever. What could people possibly say on the outside after having witnessed it? Could they even go around to places telling people about it? There are no losses and only a lot of merits. Even if Your Excellency requests me to suggest a stratagem that is more splendid than this, it would only trouble this one······.”

Barbatos frowned.

“······Shut up. Damn it. Since you’re the one talking, this bullshit doesn’t sound like bullshit.”

“Of course, that is because this is not bullshit. Your Excellency, accepting the truth as the truth is also the virtue of a sovereign.”

“I told you to shut your damn mouth!”

Barbatos let go of my clothes and groaned. She had started to contemplate while pulling at her hair, but it felt as if she was quite Bhuddistically exploring who I roughly was, where I had come from, and where I was going.

“······.”

Thinking.

“······Uuuuuu······.”

Anguish.

“Fuck······.”

And resignation.

“Do what you want, you son of a bitch······.”

After magnificently accomplishing the three steps of Buddhism, Barbatos gave herself up in despair. Although, regrettably, it felt like she was unable to accomplish the actual last step which was enlightenment. It was fine. I did not severely rebuke the lack of virtue of all creatures. Despite my appearance, I am quite merciful.

I spoke with a mindset that accepted all of the unsightly things of the world.

“A most accurate decision, Your Excellency. This one is always in awe when hearing Your Excellency’s voice. Although Your Excellency occasionally makes very bad decisions such as when Your Excellency had threatened me and even thrown me in prison, that is no more than occasionally, so I can confidently say that Your Excellency makes the correct decision the majority of times.”

“······Dantalian is, what should I say?”

Paimon muttered from behind her fan.

“His head is good, but he is slightly, or perhaps an incredibly unfortunate man······.”

This was quite the heated criticism.

“In any case, this one will take it as having received Your Excellency and Your Highness’ approval beforehand, so this one will be taking his leave······ Ah, right. Your Highness Paimon.”

As I was lowering my head and about to depart, there was something that I had suddenly remembered, so I whispered to Paimon. As Barbatos was still asking herself what the root of her existence was, she did not show any concern to us.

“Was it perhaps Your Highness who had spread those booklets throughout the military headquarters of the Crusaders?”

“Pardon?”

Paimon tilted her head prettily.

“Booklets······ is it?”

“Yes. Books that have gray covers. They are incredibly thin.”

“Mm? This lady does not know. This lady is not sure of such things.”

Paimon hid the sides of her mouth with her fan and knit her brows. Her expression appeared as if she were trying to think of something, but was unable to recall anything at all.

“What exactly are those booklets supposed to be that you are asking this lady about them, Dantalian?”

“Please do not be surprised. I heard that the humans in the army of the Crusaders had written down my speech on their own initiative and are reading it as they pass it around. That is the booklet which I had mentioned.”

“Oh dear, is that true? It has been a long time since this lady has heard such good news.”

Paimon was visibly delighted.

“As expected, people will understand if spoken to. If they do not understand even if they are told, then the majority of the time, it is because their education is incomplete. Their lack of education is due to the unworthiness of the monarch so the subjects cannot be held responsible. When one’s subject does not understand, it is only appropriate for the monarch to lament instead of rage. In that regard, the fact that the humans are passing the booklets around on their own volition······ that is truly, truly a joyous event.”

Paimon spoke with a complexion that was dyed with elation.

“Is there something which this lady could help with?”

Surely.

Is that how it is.

I courteously held my smile in my mouth.

“Is the sight of the people trying to stand up on their own not beautiful? Would it also not be beautiful to silently watch over the people trying to stand up on their own? If they are no longer able to endure and end up reaching their hands out, it would not be too late to take hold of their hands at that time.”

“Fufu.”

Paimon muffled her laugh. Beyond her fan, her voice was dyed in endless joy. It was a smile that was gentle because it was beautiful.

“Indeed, that is right as well. Your words are correct, Dantalian. This lady will hope that the lovely scenery will be prolonged for as long as possible.”

Perhaps, Sitri was moving behind the scenes solely for this smile.

Right when we were about to say our goodbyes while smiling at one another, Barbatos glared at us with murderous eyes like a chihuahua that had starved for roughly two days.

“Hey. Do you not see me suffering here? What are you two so warmly whispering about?”

We both turned to look at Barbatos.

“Nothing, you washboard child.”

“Nothing, O Lord who has realized the virtue of destitution.”

Barbatos lamented.

“Damn bastards······.”

I’m saying it again, but this was quite the heated criticism.

King’s Mistress, Mixed Blood, Lapis Lazuli

Empire Calendar: Year 1506, Month 4, Day 11

Polles, Bruno Plains, Army of the Crescent Alliance

“······Has His Highness Dantalian not arrived yet? Why has he yet to come despite having called for me?”

“His Highness will be back soon.”

I spoke smoothly.

“Please wait calmly, Chief.”

“Do you know how many times I have heard that line now? After a while, in a short bit, soon······ tsk.”

We were in a tent that was shrouded in the night.

The Chief of the Keuncuska Firm, Ivar Lodbrok, clicked his tongue. He has been tapping his cane against the floor since a while ago. It is rather unpleasant.

“Chief, this one had requested you to wait.”

“······.”

“If it is difficult for you to wait, then this one will separately notify you when His Highness has returned. Do you wish for this one to see you out?”

Chief Lodbrok glared fiercely in my direction. Did my words hit a nerve, I wonder. That is surprising. I was simply being considerate towards the old and infirm merchant.

“This youngster who is still wet behind the ears······. For someone who is simply the child of a common whore, with what courage are you babbling so proudly?”

“This one sees that you possess a marvelous talent, Chief. Yes. My biological mother was indeed a harlot. It has not been that long since this one had discovered this truth either. How did you find out, Chief?”

“Do you think that I would not have attached even a single spy on you? I am also aware that you were the one who had personally taken the head of your own mother. How interesting. Your behavior of imprecating others is a glory that you are able to bask in solely due to Demon Lord Dantalian.”

“······.”

“Do you not look forward to seeing if that glory of yours is simply a brief moment behind the scenes?”

That is so.

A foul stench is destined to emanate from things that have stagnated.

This is one of the horribly rotten truths of the world.

“Your words are harsh, Chief. Please be more mindful.”

“Ha. The day when Dantalian’s age of prosperity comes to an end will also be the day when your descent down to Hell begins. What would happen if the world were to find out that you had murdered your own biological mother? Since he has made such a boorish woman into his lover, His Highness Dantalian’s reputation will most likely plummet as well. Are you aware? There is not a single man in the world who would like a woman that could make them fall from grace.”

“······.”

The Keuncuska was the leading firm of the demon continent.

As people would say, they were a group that was referred to as the Great Keuncuska.

Even now, the firm was carrying out the role of warehouse keeper and was providing supplies for the Crescent Alliance. Adding to that, Lodbrok was a big merchant who was in charge of both Demon Lord Marbas and Demon Lord Paimon. If you were not one of the higher ranking Demon Lords, then you would most likely be incapable of even standing against this vampire who was sitting in front of me.

“When that time comes, I shall observe how violently an outcast like you will behave against the world.”

I let out a sigh.

⎯⎯⎯I see that he is hardly worth my time.

My sigh must have irritated him as the chief drew his brows together.

“Who do you think you are to be sighing before me?”

“You should also be well aware since you said that you had placed spies on this one. Although it may be more than this one deserves, this one receives deep affection from His Highness Dantalian. This one will not deliberately point out the issue regarding the fact that you are speaking informally to the mistress who may or may not be capable of exerting her influence to His Highness.”

“Oho. That is quite the high horse you are on there. What are you trying to say?”

“In the end, this one will not make His Highness Dantalian fall.”

The chief snorted after hearing my words.

“And here I was, curious as to what it was that you wanted to say. What a foolish child. Is that something that will not happen simply because you wish for it to not happen? The mere act of spreading the news of your lowly and immoral crime would be enough to immediately drop the reputation of······.”

“I apologize for cutting you off in the middle of your sentence, Chief, but how exactly could that possibly make His Highness fall?”

“What?”

The chief knitted his brow. Was he unable to understand? Or is he feigning ignorance despite having understood?

Regardless of which side it was, there should be no problem with playing along with the scrawny disposition of an elderly man. He is a precious guest. I am a person who welcomes precious guests with my utmost devotion.

“His Highness is not an individual who cares about his reputation to the world. To be more precise, as His Highness is a person who exercises caution towards the increase of his own reputation, His Highness is an individual who will instead try to lower his own reputation by any means possible. By doing so, he is able to bewitch the many beasts that live in blindness.”

“······.”

“His Highness had risen to the ranks of millionaires within the shortest amount of time in history. His Highness was the fastest person to have ever broken through the Black and White Fortresses. When Demon Lord Marbas was defeated and Demon Lord Barbatos’ forces were in danger of being breached, it was also His Highness who had obtained the achievement of rescuing the Crescent Alliance. Despite these facts, how are things like, Chief?”

I was simply speaking in a voice that was neither high or low.

“Despite these achievements, are the sounds of praise towards His Highness resonating throughout the demon continent?”

That was not the case.

His Highness’ fame was not even remotely high. Demon Lord Dantalian, who was ranked 71st, was so insignificant that he was a monarch whom the majority of the people living on the demon continent have never heard the name of. Although it felt as if his fame would begin to spread around the time the Black Death had started to spread, that was only for a moment. By making a half-breed such as myself into his fiancée and appointing a human girl as his acting general, His Highness’ reputation had fallen to rock bottom

A lecher. A fool among fools.

That was the standpoint which the majority of demonkind had towards His Highness.

“His Highness’ wealth is attributed under this one’s accomplishment as his head handmaiden. The meritorious deeds of breaching through the Black and White Fortresses and rescuing the Crescent Alliance are set as services carried out by Lady De Farnese. Chief, do you consider all of these things to be a coincidence?”

“······.”

“You threatened to widely spread the news that this one had murdered her own mother, correct? That is fine. This one will not stop you. If anything, His Highness would most likely give you a round of applause and thank you, Chief. He will presumably say something along the lines of ‘You have done a good job doing this great one’s task in his stead’.”

“······.”

“In the end, there is no way that this one could ever make His Highness fall. Because His Highness has always desired to reside in the low shadows. His Highness is an individual who prefers to dwell in the shadows whenever the noon sun is shining in the sky. This one is graciously one of those shadows for His Highness.”

Acting General, a human child.

Captain of the Royal Guards, an immensely lowly witch.

Head Handmaiden, a half-breed succubus.

As vassals, we serve His Highness for life. His Highness is a fire that will burn the world. If the fire is going to burn and shine its light as far out as possible, then, more important than anything else, a night, a dark night was undoubtedly necessary. An illegitimate child, a slaughterer, and an outcast, we are His Highness’ dire night.

“The likes of us are nothing but humble beings, but we attend to His Highness with our humbleness. As we know that this is our duty as his vassals, we have no reason to change our despicableness.”

The vampire became silent.

The cane that kept tapping against the floor of the tent had stopped as well. Even the occasional noise of him clicking his tongue had ceased. This is a good disposition. This most likely means that he has sufficiently understood my words. I nodded my head towards the chief one more time before turning around and resuming the task which I was taking care of.

Night.

A lot of things cannot be seen at night. You can only make assumptions of the places which you cannot see by using the sounds that can be heard, and in the distance, the creaking sound of wheels was echoing over the tents. Creak······. Grains of soil broke apart underneath the wheels and the sound of a person’s voice overlapped it.

— Cheap services. Will throw away, dead beggars for you. Will throw away, dead corpses lying in the corner for you. Will pick up any kind of corpses. Cheap services. Will throw away, all dead beggars······.

It was a homeless person wandering around the military encampment.

When the sun rises, these beggars gather together and gamble in a place where there is less sunlight, and when the sun sets, they search for tents with bright torches and stick out their bowls. Although the beggars who had lost even their bowls in gambling would stick out both of their hands, the beggars who had even lost their fingers in gambling would stick out their three or four fingers.

I can confidently assert that having less than three fingers on a single hand is not exactly pleasant news to a beggar. As that means they cannot retaliate properly if someone were to kick them, even if they could retaliate, it means that their efforts would be insignificant. Moreover, who would not wish to kick a beggar? From time to time, when the common soldiers kick at the beggars, the ones who have less than three fingers are assaulted without being able to do anything to defend themselves and this occasionally results in their deaths. The deaths of those beggars is natural and trivial. Similar to how normal people use their fingers to count numbers, beggars use their fingers to count the remainder of their lives.

One at a time.

And then it ends at one.

Corpses are thrown away in the corner of tents and left to rot. Flies gather around those rotting corpses. The annoyed soldiers kick the corpses further into the corner, but the corpses simply continue to pile up in every corner. This provides another type of livelihood for the beggars.

Sturdy-shouldered beggars, whose fingers were still fine, roamed around the military camp while pulling cheap-looking carts that came from only God knows where. On a cycle of every couple of days, they would roam around and collect the corpses in the corners. They then took the corpses far away in order to throw them out. Is this not brilliant? As someone who was originally a merchant, I rate these sorts of things highly. Until the day they gamble away their carts, they had managed to obtain a job for even the shortest amount of time by themselves.

Whenever the beggars pass by this tent while dragging their carts,

— I wonder if it’s because that incredibly dreadful bitch lives here. Spit, there’s a damn ton of dead chaps and bitches······.

they always say something as they do so.

Even their method of begging was highbrow in quite the number of ways.

I simply tossed two coins outside the entrance of the tent. There was no need for me to go out of my way to step outside. The wheels would then momentarily stop in the vicinity of this tent’s entrance before letting out another ‘creak’ and departing.

Creak, creak.

Creak······.

“Why did you toss those coins to that person?”

A voice that sounded as if it were lost in thought.

Chief Lodbrok was glaring at me firmly.

“They would have taken care of those corpses even if you left them alone.”

“That would not be leaving them alone, but pushing them away. The people do not easily forget the ones who have pushed them away.”

I answered in a subdued tone.

“The ones who are not forgotten by the people can easily fall into ruin. If you can buy the apathy of the people with a couple of coins, then it is basically like having bought it for free. Although this one may be engaging in the business of a Demon Lord’s feudal government, there has yet to be a time where this one was unfaithful to the duty of a merchant.”

“Are you trying to buy the contempt of the people because you are a merchant? Is that an item which can be handled by merchants?”

“If it cannot be handled, then why would they be revering His Highness Dantalian?”

Silence.

The candlelight flickered and dimly lit the interior of the tent.

Many things cannot be seen at night. In the places that cannot be seen, there are beggars who die while begging and beggars who live by begging. When a fellow beggar dies, there are also beggars who beg by doing the job of picking up corpses and throwing them away. In the world, each place that cannot be seen is a corner, each out-of-the-way corner is a gap, and each gap is a wall. It is possible to escape from the corner of the world by climbing up that wall, but I do not blame them for simply hanging off the edge of the cliff and spending their days shaking.

It is simply an occupation and merely a physiology.

I do not blame them, but I use them instead. Beggars, harlots, and mercenaries, these were all things that lived while placing their occupation in a crevice. Similar to how a beggar uses the corpses of beggars on a daily basis in order to live, I continue my profession while leaving the crevices of the world as crevices. The note that was being illuminated by the flickering candlelight was also a part of my job.

— Loud noises outside. Violently killed. The soldiers are going through the bordello. It is scary. A lot of fire is burning outside.

I wonder if they had written this in a hurry. The words on the memo that was sent by the spy were crooked. I checked the next letter.

— The soldiers suddenly shut up. It’s quiet now.

— Sudden inspection. All of the girls who had hidden the books were taken away. I survived because my lover had told me about it beforehand. I’m saying this because I’m lacking money this half of the month, but please send more. Would that be okay?

— My sisters are being dragged away. They still haven’t returned. I’m scared. I can’t do this any longer. Please do not contact me anymore after the next payment. I’m sorry. I won’t tell anyone.

These letters were all sent by harlots.

Whether to plant spies inside of the military tents or to plant spies in the vicinity of the military tents. Although these two options both have their own respective merits and demerits, I cannot help but prefer the latter. The lives that live while hanging off of a piece of rope that is dangling off the side of a cliff are the ones who will be the very first to realize when that rope begins to shake.

The only things which they can barely understand are signs and vague omens. The tasks of seizing the signals that are sent by them and interpreting their messages are solely my duty as His Highness’ head handmaiden.

It is fine. I am a modest peasant.

A peasant knows best about the livelihoods of other peasants.

— Increase my pay starting the next half of the month. I’ll snitch you out if you don’t.

The life which will be forfeited after snitching will undoubtedly be your life and not my own. Since this was something the person directly involved knew best, there was no need for me to be concerned. Next.

— Are you the one who had spread these booklets as well? I want to go to that side. General Farnese is a human, right? I’m a human as well. It should be fine since a human is just going to another human, right?

Occasionally, there are harlots who get confused as to whether they are doing spy work or if they are philandering. If you comfort them with gentle words, then they will provide precious information later on. There is most likely no more need for this harlot to continue following the Crusaders around.

I implicitly replied that although you are a human, you will not be able to cross over to another human. Next.

— It’s been crazy since earlier. I don’t know what the fuss is, but it’s noisy. Even the soldier that was pounding me had to stop mid-way because his superior called him. Stop mid-pounding. This is strange. Really strange.

— He still paid me properly. He was nice.

I see. It was indeed strange. Although there are occasions where soldiers stop in the middle of killing other people, there is never a time where they stop in the middle of having intercourse with a harlot.

As that was the case, if this truly did happen, then it was most likely because they were under pressure. The harlot who had sent this letter was not placed in the army of the Crusaders, but a girl who was situated in the dispatched troops of the Neutral Faction. Not only was her personality rather unusual, but her flaw was that she always sent two memos.

The speed of both the Imperial Princess of the Habsburg Empire and Corps Commander Marbas was not normal. They were targets of interest that required one to be apprehensive about in no small measure.

In our current situation, we lack the time to be able to leisurely appease the Neutral Faction. Before we can even persuade them, the Imperial Princess may rally her forces and attack us. If we do not persuade the Neutral Faction, then safely withdrawing to the demon continent would become impossible.

I see that this is a battle of speed. Will we be able to avoid the Neutral Faction and carry out our retreat first, or will the Imperial Princess lead the human armies to pursue us first······? One day. Or perhaps two. This meager amount of time was going to determine the fate of the two armies.

— Although there is nothing to send, it feels as if I am sending it. If there is something to send while sending something, then it feels as if I would. Ah, if this is life, then it is hollow.

This parasite flat out wrote a poem and sent it.

This is a girl with a somewhat strange head.

I sent a reply saying ‘I apologize, but you do not possess poetic talent’.

Next.

— My older friend was caught and killed. It’s because of you. It’s all because of you.

— No. I did what you told me to do. All of it.

— Please, can you save my friends who are imprisoned? The older soldiers said that we have to provide bail. I just need this much.

Next.

Crows upon crows began to take flight. Each crow scattered throughout the night sky with a memo wrapped around their ankles.

At the latest, the harlots will receive the letters from the crows by tonight and read my reply while relying on a candlelight. The act of reading a letter which had been written in a place illuminated by a candlelight while also in a place that was lit up by a candlelight feels beautiful to me.

“What have you been continuing to send?”

A deeply thinking voice.

“Does it seem like those birds will come back with the things which you desire just because you had sent them?”

“This one simply wishes to feel out the world.”

“How foolish. Does the world feel as if it is being felt out simply because you claimed to be doing so? Lapis Lazuli. While one half is a harlot, your other half is a human girl. Even if a lowly girl like yourself were to feel out and spy on the world, it will all be in vain once the Demon Lord’s affection for you has faded. Do you believe in that Demon Lord? Or do you believe in people? Similar to how you are trying to feel out the world, will you also feel out the very bottom of people’s hearts?”

“Your worries are deep, Chief. Revealing your deep concerns is a dangerous thing to do as it will also reveal the deepest part of your mind as well, Chief. Are you trying to leave your heart with this one because you trust her? This one is the type of person who does not care even slightly about the hearts of others, and of course, your heart as well, Chief.”

“······.”

“Not only does this one not have a reason to do so, but this one does not try to pry into the foundations of other people either. This one is satisfied with simply the surfaces of people. Did you ask what His Highness’ foundation was, Chief? That is a silly question. As this one’s base is the same as His Highness’, there is no need for this one to be concerned.”

Silence.

I wonder how concentrated he was.

It was around the time the wax of a candle had melted down and formed a white, glazed pond. The sound of footsteps could be heard outside of the tent.

Step.

Seeing as how the guards are not trying to stop them, it seems another beggar has come to beg. The beggars who beg during the afternoon are the strongest and happiest, the beggars who beg during the evening are the second happiest, and the beggars who beg in the middle of the night while searching for a place that is bright are the most unfortunate. The disabled, who are among the lowest of beggars, are mostly like that.

As per usual, I picked up a coin and tossed it outside. The moment I was about to turn away since I was sure that the person would naturally leave, a voice seeped into the tent.

“Oh dear. I am finally observing the world after a week, but am I being told to take this pocket change and leave? I see that my love is cold-hearted.”

“······.”

It was the voice of His Highness Dantalian.

I took out a pocket watch and checked the time. It was past midnight. I heard that he was going to be discharged yesterday evening, but what has he been doing until now and where? The witches that were sent to fetch him had already returned with Farnese and were now sleeping in a corner of the tent.

“Has His Highness finally honored us with his presence? An individual who is quite difficult to see the esteemed face of. After having aged four generations and experiencing the eighth Crescent Alliance, I am now having a bitter experience at last······.”

Chief Ivar Lodbrok, who was seated beside me, also stood up slowly. He was grumbling in a voice that was just low enough to not reach the outside of the tent.

I ignored him and straightened my clothes tidily.

“Welcome, Your Highness. Chief Lodbrok of the Keuncuska Firm had received Your Highness’ summon and is waiting for you inside.”

Lord Dantalian then arrived at the tent.

“Oho, Chief. I apologize for summoning you so late in the night.”

Lord Dantalian greeted the chief the moment he entered the tent.

“Regardless, I believed that it would not matter since you are a vampire, Chief, so I had sent that express messenger. I am worried that I may have possibly upset your mood.”

“Far from it. A greater being had summoned this one so why would it matter whether it was in the middle of the day or the middle of the night?”

“Yes. You are right. Only when you meet with someone when you have to meet with them would it then be called a meeting. So? Have you been doing well?”

His Highness pleasantly welcomed the chief with a smile, a smile which he had once told me was his charming smile, but in my personal opinion, it was a smile that looked unbelievably wicked.

I wonder if he believed that the atmosphere was not bad. Chief Lodbrok’s expression naturally relaxed as well.

“Yes. This one should be the one to ask if Your Highness has been in good health. This one can only apologize for not being able to send his respects often.”

“It is fine. Are you not the financier of our Crescent Alliance, Chief? I have also just returned from having an urgent discussion with Her Excellency Barbatos and Her Highness Paimon. I wish to discuss that topic with you as well, Chief.”

“At once. If this one can be even the slightest of assistance to the greater beings, then this one would be honored.”

“Take a seat first. Even if we shall be conversing, we should do so while seated.”

It is night.

I can hear the sound of crickets through the sides of the tent. It seems that the crickets are letting out every last bit of reverberation in their bodies as if they absolutely had to tell someone right this instant that it was currently night. As I believe that bugs are all lives that hang off the side of a cliff and tremble, I do not think it is weird.

Although the night is a time that is easy for some people to fall asleep in.

For others, the night is a time that is easy for them to kill other people in.

“I shall cut to the chase. Ivar Lodbrok.”

“Yes, Your Highness. Please tell this one anything.”

Chief Lodbrok bowed his head while seated.

His Highness smoothly spoke towards the crown of the chief’s head.

“How dare you betray the Crescent Alliance.”

“······.”

Silence.

In an instant, the air inside of the tent became paralyzed as if the tongue of a large snake had just passed by. Since it felt as if the shadow that was being illuminated by the candlelight was that of a snake, I held my breath. What did His Highness Dantalian say just now?

“Your Highness, just, what do you mean······?”

I am most likely not the only person who thinks that they had misheard. Chief Lodbrok looked up at Lord Dantalian with a deathly pale face. Lord Dantalian still has a smooth grin on his face.

“What is the matter, Chief? Your complexion does not look good. Even if I did say those words in order to make your complexion rot, it is embarrassing if it rots so fast. More wrinkles will form on your already old face.”

It is those eyes.

The faint and partially opened eyes he would always display whenever he was looking for a prey to tear apart.

The same look which Lady Farnese, the girl who His Highness had taken in as his adopted daughter, had learned perfectly.

At times like this, His Highness would hum as if he were in an incredibly good mood.

“To be honest, I like you. You are open in both a good and a bad way. As you are able to conceal yourself well while in other places, at the very least, you cannot hide anything while you are before me. Oho, how profound. In a way, are we not already in a relationship that is somewhat similar to that of lovers?”

His Highness chuckled.

“I cherish you in a special way, Ivar Lodbrok.”

“······.”

His Highness’ elongated shadow which was being illuminated in the tent was scoffing.

The King of Peasants, Rank 71st, Dantalian

Empire Calendar: Year 1506, Month 4, Day 11

Polles, Bruno Plains, Army of the Crescent Alliance

How long did the silence last, I wonder?

There was a color to people’s emotions. There was also a fragrance. As it was the color of their voice, it was the fragrance of their heart. Ivar Lodbrok trembled with his entire body while his voice exuded his heart.

“······This one’s hope, this one’s life aspiration, is to solely work for the Crescent Alliance. This one does not understand why Your Highness would reprimand this old soul. Please be more mindful, Your Highness.”

If you quibble over purely the time, then Ivar Lodbrok most likely panicked for no more than 1 minute. He was able to compose himself after the unexpected attack. To that extent, he was worthy of appraisal.

Regardless, it was unfortunate for him. My surprise attack had yet to even begin. Ivar Lodbrok, at most, all you had experienced just now was similar to having listened to the faint sound of horns starting to be blown on a battlefield.

I opened my mouth.

“Have you been secretly communicating with Demon Lord Sitri?”

“······.”

Flinch.

The vampire, who was trying to do whatever he could to continue speaking, stopped moving. However, the only thing that had frozen in place was his visible movements. The color of his breath became hazier. The fragrance of his heart became thicker.

I stood up and approached Ivar Lodbrok. Then, as if I were appreciating a piece of art that consisted of color and scent, I slowly walked towards the chair that the vampire was seated in. As if I were putting a wooden fence around the vampire with the sound of my footsteps. As if I were creating a boundary and trying to trap him inside.

I enunciated with a voice that contained noble affection.

“Ivar Lodbrok. Starting from yesterday, I shall tell you what you had done before coming here today. Do listen carefully.”

“······.”

Press.

I raised my thumb and gently pressed down on the exact center of Lodbrok’s shoulders. His shoulder flesh, which was covered by his mantle, felt softer than it did firm, and it was crunchier than it was soft. To be exact, his shoulders possessed the same softness and crunchiness of an apple. If broken up well, then a thick-scented juice would most likely flow out.

“You were most likely bewildered when the purge began yesterday evening. Following after that, you moved around hastily because you did not know what exactly was going on. This is obvious. As the life of a merchant depends on how fast you can obtain information, there is no one out there who knows this better than you.”

“That is······.”

“But oh dear. There was a big problem. Who could you possibly go to in order to ask for the truth? Will you go to Her Excellency Barbatos and ask her? Darn.”

Press.

I raised my pinky on top the vampire’s shoulders.

“No, you could not do that. Barbatos is a terrifying Demon Lord. She also has the tendency of valuing farmers more than merchants. Normally, you would laugh at this sort of person and call them outdated for being behind the times, but the situation changes when that outdated person has an executioner’s blade in their hand. Naturally, your desire to laugh would go right back in. Aha, it is a problem. It is a problem.”

“······Your Highness.”

“Now what could you do? Even if you approached the low-ranking Demon Lords, they would most likely claim that they did not know what was happening, and in truth, they truly did not know. Oh dear, what could you do in this situation? Should you just run up to Her Highness Paimon and ask her? Darn.”

Press.

Continuing from my thumb and pinky, I pressed my ring fingers down on his shoulders.

Similar to how a spider steps on its webs. Not too strong or too weak.

“No, you could not do this either. By all means, this was something which you surely could not do. With what face could you possibly request for a personal audience with Her Highness Paimon and ask her about the ulterior motives behind the purge? Her Highness had yet to even forgive you, this old vampire. If you were to infuriate Her Highness because of a slip of the tongue, then it would make matters into an even bigger issue.”

“······.”

“Aha, it is a problem. It is a problem. It cannot be helped. Barbatos is a woman who would even keep a secret from her own close aides. Paimon is also a discreet Demon Lord. ‘However’, is what you must have then thought. Paimon may be a discreet woman, but is she not open to a single person, her close aide and pet, Sitri?”

“······.”

Press.

I added my middle fingers.

“You then contemplated. Were you not also longtime associates with Demon Lord Sitri? The two of you have a relationship where you would exchange miscellaneous requests with one another. Surely she would share this information with you······.”

I chuckled.

“Your prediction was on the mark. It was probably thanks to that long relationship of yours. Sitri provided you with the information about the purge as if she were paying back an obvious debt. Your brain must have then operated busily. Aah. Would things not become quite busy?”

“······.”

“A purge had ended up occurring. It was obvious that the demon continent was going to be thrown into a state of chaos in the near future. It was an important issue. Will you utilize this confusion and profit heavily off of it, or will you not? If you are going to do business, then how will you go about doing so? It was truly an important issue······. And, while you were in the middle of your thoughts, Demon Lord Sitri had spoken to you.”

In a tone that sounded as if she had just remembered something.

While putting her unique smile on top of it.

I tenuously attempted to speak in a falsetto. I was not particularly used to this, but this was simply an extra effort in order to provide entertainment for the opposition. I could not refuse something like this. Let’s see, would it not have been this sort of tone?

Oh right.

Now that I think about it, you also hate the Demon Lord known as Dantalian, right?

The vampire’s complexion was ingrained in the breath he was letting out.

“Just, how······ no, what is Your Highness saying······?”

I saw this as a natural course of action. This person’s trap was a maw that had drained a tremendous amount of blood from others throughout the passage of time. He was simply breathing out the fragrance which he had swallowed until now.

I was incapable of immediately seeing what sort of expression was on the vampire’s face right now because I was standing behind the chair which he was seated in.

Not yet. I cannot appreciate this person’s final expression yet. Fear had the same kind of charm as red wine. I had to wait patiently for the fragrance to flourish sufficiently.

“Indeed. Sitri has a pure charm by nature. She must have persuaded you like this.”

······No, it’s not much. Ehehe. It’s really a simple thing.

······Ei, really, Chief. You’re going to be like this despite our relationship? Hmm? If anything, this is close to being something you have to be the one to do, Chief. You have at least one method of urgently getting in contact with old man Marbas, right? Yeah?

“······.”

“You are the merchant who is in charge of His Excellency Marbas. Since that is the case, if an incident which needs to be hastily reported to His Excellency Marbas were to occur, then informing him of it would naturally be your duty.”

Like if a purge had occurred.

Like if a bunch of Demon Lords had died like a group of beggars.

Since it was an incident that was on the same level of a calamity.

······Informing him of things like this, Chief.

······Is this not your bounden duty?

These were not excessively incorrect words.

Because they were not excessively incorrect words, Ivar Lodbrok had done so.

There will be a great profit if the war lasts longer. That was it.

He did his duty as Marbas’ exclusive merchant. That was it.

He was able to deepen his personal connection with Demon Lord Sitri. That was it.

⎯⎯⎯The price for thinking ‘that was it’.

Although someone may be pierced in the chest and die by an arrow that had been casually shot by someone else, the person who simply believes that all they did was casually shoot an arrow despite that, must receive an appropriate punishment and pay the price.

That was so. Punishment and price. I have always insulted the beasts that have tried to bite at my neck light-heartedly.

Even if that beast were the Rank 9th Demon Lord, it would not change.

Even if that beast were the Rank 5th Demon Lord, it would still not change.

Even if that beast were the vampire who controlled the greatest firm on the demon continent, it would still not change at all.

I spoke the name of the beast that had fearlessly walked straight towards me today.

“Ivar Lodbrok.”

Press.

I then finally added my index fingers on top of the beast’s shoulders.

With my five fingers alone.

I divided my strength into five parts.

And pressed down on the bulky fruits that the vampire’s shoulders were harboring.

The things which reverberated after being flattened by my fingers were most likely his blood vessels, and the things which groaned after being pushed down by my hands were most likely his bones. The thing which I had pressed deeply inside and pushed aside was the elderly greed which this person had held onto and lived with until now. While grasping this person’s blood vessels, bones, and elderly greed with my five nets, I spoke.

“Are you aware of what you had done?”

Know thyself.

After reciting this old saying, I slowly whispered into his ear.

“You are a filthy traitor who had dropped the entire Crescent Alliance into a bottomless pit.”

“······.”

I gently grabbed Ivar Lodbrok’s chin. He endured by hunching up with a strength that was unbefitting of his old bones. Although he was hunched up, he was doing so while trembling. I forcefully turned the vampire’s head.

A gaze that appeared as if he were looking at the Devil was there.

Aah. I grinned in satisfaction.

I released the old man’s chin. Like a person who had taken a single bite out of an appetizing dessert and spat it back out.

“⎯⎯⎯Huuk, haa······ haa······.”

I wonder if he had been holding his breath until this moment? Once Ivar Lodbrok was released from my grasp, he exhaled roughly. I lightly tapped his shoulder.

“You will lose your neck, Chief. Is one’s necks not important? You should look after your own better from now on.”

Stillness.

I could hear the soft sound of Farnese and the witches’ breathing as they slept in a corner of the tent. In this very moment, that was most likely the only sign of life that was flowing through the tent. The crickets outside had also stopped crying, so it was silent all around us.

“······Proof.”

Ivar Lodbrok opened his mouth after a significant amount of time had passed.

“There is, no proof. This one is not in a position that is weak enough to be punished without proof.”

I laughed. Was this not nearly at the same level of a baby’s cute antics?

“What a surprising remark, Chief. It is an especially surprising remark for you to use as a method to defend yourself if you consider the current situation. Did the heads of seven Demon Lords not depart together on a group trip down the pathway to Hades just half a day ago? Her Excellency Barbatos and Her Highness Paimon had even sent them on that trip for free. No matter how I look at it, it seems that our honorable chief.”

I tapped the side of the vampire’s head.

“It seems that you are confident that your own single head is heavier than that of seven Demon Lords’, huh? I see that you calculate things with quite the amazing scale. Indeed, as one would expect from a big merchant, their scale is also incredibly special. Have your customers never complained to you that you should use proper weights?”

“······.”

“Yes. There is no evidence. But why would having evidence or not matter? Is this some formal court? Do you think that our two corps commanders would hold a special trial just for you, Chief? We are leading a purge, not a trial. Moreover, the reason why purges are purges is due to the fact that you are able to exterminate things simply because of your beliefs. Ah.”

I smiled slightly.

“Of course, the excuse that there is no evidence will last only momentarily. If we simply ask His Excellency Marbas whom he had heard the information about the purge from, then would the proof not be brazenly made? Ivar Lodbrok. Vampire who has built a tower out of blood-stained gold coins. Your position has become quite pitiful.”

“······This one has never sent a letter to His Highness Marbas. Your Highness can confirm this yourself. His Highness Marbas will also say that he does not know. Not only that. For Your Highness to say that this one had secret talks with Her Highness Sitri······. That is simply a forced deduction.”

Would you look at this?

Is this his desperate struggle in order to hang onto the rope until the very end?

However, it wasn’t just the rotten rope. Even if my assumption were correct, just as the vampire had said, Marbas and Sitri would adamantly deny the charges. There was no evidence and there were no witnesses.

Although beheading people because of one’s beliefs alone was what purges were, as expected, it was nothing more than a purge. If one were to try and swallow a large group like the Keuncuska Firm in a single bite, then your jaw would nearly crack.

Therefore, I decided to open the mouth more.

“All right. I shall accept your excuse. By the way, Chief. There is something this great one has been curious about for the past couple of days.”

“······.”

“I heard from a spy that the speech which my acting general had given was made into a small booklet and is running rampant inside the army of the Crusaders. The common soldiers have been passing the booklets around among themselves, so this occurrence in itself is not suspicious.”

I gave Lapis a glance.

Lapis understood the meaning behind my look and took out a single booklet from within a pile of documents before handing it to me. It was a booklet with a gray cover. The book where my and Farnese’s speech was written down on. I received the booklet and tap, tap, I patted the vampire’s shoulder.

“This happened too fast.”

“······.”

“It has only been a few days. Within those mere few days, it had been made into a booklet and circulated. As the hungry soldiers do not have the surplus strength to do something like that, the poor harlots lack the money to do so even more. As long as the one behind this does not move systematically, would it not be difficult to pull off?”

“Would the people not have made a united effort in order to make them? Since the cover is ragged and the pages are pitiable······.”

“Still. It was much too fast.”

Ivar Lodbrok closed his mouth. Did he intend to plead the Fifth here? If I were his lawyer, then that was an action which I would have heavily advised against in a moment like this.

“I shall acknowledge something, Chief. I have been pushing myself forward too much for a while. I had pushed myself forward incredibly too much despite being someone who did not know much. However, after piecing together the information, I was able to see an outline.”

“······.”

“If one wishes to circulate the books this fast, then there needs to be a hole in the Crusaders. A massive hole. A massive hole that will not disappear even if one were to capture some common soldiers and procurers. Do you know what that is, Chief? If it were just a few days ago, then even I would not have been able to figure out what this was.”

The Republic of Batavia.

Not a country with a couple of spies planted here and there, but an entire country that was in the hands of a Demon Lord. Furthermore, not only was it the only republic in the human continent, but it was a land in the west that was secretly established by Demon Lord Paimon.

The words of the speech were copied down inside that country’s army, copies were printed, and they were then circulated. There was no need for them to hand the booklets out one by one either. All you had to do was simply dump a bunch of the booklets in some out-of-the-way corner of a tent. Similar to how the corpse of a beggar goes to another beggar, the discarded booklets would flow from the hand of one soldier to another.

Does this not naturally call upon sympathy? The leading members of the Crusaders will most likely huff and puff as they attempt to root out the source of the circulation, but their efforts would be pointless. Similar to how there were 7 traitorous Demon Lords in the Crescent Alliance, an entire nation was the joker in the army of the Crusaders.

I twisted the ends of my mouth.

“Have you still not grasped the meaning behind my words?”

“······Yes, Your Highness. This one truly does not know.”

“I heard that you are the consultant of quite the number of Demon Lords. Marbas, the leader of the Neutral Faction and the ranked 5th Demon Lord is one of them, and so is the person whom I hold in high esteem, Her Highness Paimon. Moreover, oh, would you look at this? Surprisingly, do you not also lead the greatest firm in the demon continent and carry out trades with each and every country? Of course, your firm is just great enough to print out something like a couple of booklets with ragged covers and pitiable pages as many times as you want.”

“······.”

The sound of Ivar Lodbrok’s breathing gradually died down.

It was simple. Since there was a massive hole somewhere in the army of the Crusaders, it was possible for the booklets to be distributed. This gap was undoubtedly the army of the Republic of Batavia. The monarch who had founded the republic was Demon Lord Paimon.

Adding to that, the vampire seated before me was the merchant who acted as Paimon’s exclusive consultant.

Was this not quite the impressive coincidence?

“Nevertheless, Chief. Is this not the rather strange occurrence? As I had said earlier, I had just returned from meeting with Her Excellency Barbatos and Her Highness Paimon⎯⎯⎯ and when I had questioned Her Highness Paimon about this matter, she stated that it was not her.”

The vampire trembled.

The trembling in his shadow was more intense than his actual body.

“Chief. Oh dear, Chief. Is this not strange? Is this not bizarre and peculiar? The location of where the seditious booklets are circulating from has been determined and the location of where the booklets are being printed from has been determined as well, but alas. How could this be? Only the person who had given the order for these booklets to be printed and circulated is nowhere to be found.”

“······.”

“Chief. I am a rational person. Even if a situation that does not make rational sense were to be pushed into my face, I am sensible enough to still deduce a rational answer. Chief Lodbrok, do you perhaps know what the rational reasoning would be in this sort of situation?”

“······.”

“Oh dear. It seems that you do not know. Your head is rather lacking despite being referred to as the ruler of the Great Keuncuska. How about you, Lapis? If it were you, Lapis, how would you infer the answer?”

Lapis answered briefly.

“There is most likely someone in the middle who has superseded control, Your Highness.”

“Oh my. How could this be? How could someone dare to supersede control from the leader of the Mountain Faction? How could there be such a wretched fellow? I see that my love is able to say quite the terrifying things.”

I chatted while intentionally acting as if I were frightened. It was a cheap performance. However, if there is an audience, then even a cheap performance would seemingly have a smidgen of value. Lapis played along with my antics and bowed.

“This one apologizes. This humble one has said something which she should not have.”

“No, it is okay. What is there to apologize for when all you had done was make an inference? In any case, this is strange. As Her Highness Paimon is not a fool, if there is a person superseding control in the middle, then would she not have noticed?”

“Yes. Her Highness would have realized without fail.”

“And yet, she has not.”

“That is the case.”

“What does this mean?”

“It means that the culprit is someone whom Her Highness Paimon trusts completely and entrusts with tasks.”

Lapis answered immediately.

“It is most likely a personage who Her Highness is at ease with, as she believes that they would not dare to supersede control and deceive her.”

Precisely.

In other words, Paimon’s close aide.

Rank 12th Demon Lord Sitri.

“Oho······.”

I lamented deeply.

“If such a personage does exist, then it would be quite scary and terrifying. Would that not truly mean that there is a person out there who is able to freely ridicule both the demon and human continents? For them to impudently utilize the intelligence network which Her Highness Paimon had constructed however they please and deride the Crusaders. Although their real intention may have possibly been to please Her Highness Paimon, since they had proceeded with the insurrection while keeping it as a secret from Her Highness, it is an immense ridicule and a substantial disloyalty. How is this different to covering both of Her Highness Paimon’s eyes and playing tricks? Alas. I am deeply concerned.”

“······.”

“Nevertheless, how were the traces of disloyalty not caught? Since the intelligence network which they had used is solely the intelligence network of Her Highness Paimon, the reason why the intelligence agents had listened to that person’s orders is most likely because they misunderstood that it was an order from Her Highness Paimon. If we were to summon the intelligence agents and question them, then the truth will easily be revealed. What type of person the culprit is, what name they have, and whom they had secret talks with, this will all be exhibited out in the open.”

I asked once more.

“Ivar Lodbrok.”

Similar to the act of stabbing a spear into a beast that was already bleeding from an arrow.

I, however, questioned him smoothly and with gentleness.

“Are you still unable to fathom a guess?”

“············.”

Finally.

The ruler of Keuncuska collapsed.

King’s Mistress, Mixed Blood, Lapis Lazuli

Empire Calendar: Year 1505, Month 4, Day 11

Polles, Bruno Plains, Army of the Crescent Alliance

······I see, this is the end.

I thought while gazing at the chief who had fallen into silence. The leading power of the Keuncuska was now done for. He may continue to live, but that will merely be a life of servitude as His Highness Dantalian’s slave.

Lord Dantalian chuckled.

“Quite the entertaining event will most likely occur if I were to tell Her Highness Paimon about my rational deduction.”

“······.”

The owner of the Keuncuska trembled his shoulders in silence.

“You had already abandoned Her Highness Paimon once back in the council chamber of Niflheim. Although the issue at that time was resolved because Her Highness was at fault as well, how do you intend to endure now? Ivar Lodbrok, will you stab yourself and take your own life like that goblin, Torukel, had done?”

“······Your Highness.”

“Now that I think about it, I should stop referring to you as a man, but as a girl. You are concealing your pretty little girl self with that appearance of an old man after all. Aha. Along with Sitri, since the two of you are miscellaneous things that no one knows whether you are a bastard or a bitch, birds of a feather flock together.”

Chief Lodbrok fell down.

He fell from his chair, collapsed to the floor, and finally, his body toppled. With his entire body, the vampire did his all to apologize to His Highness with the utmost desperation.

“This one, has never done anything that may be troublesome to the demon continent······. Her Highness Sitri has been the close aide of Her Highness Paimon for a very long time. How, how could this one have known that that was a fake command? Ever since Torukel had taken his own life, this one has been put in a state where this one could not possibly dare to refuse an order from Her Highness Paimon······.”

“An impressive excuse.”

Lord Dantalian grinned.

“Let us see if Her Highness Paimon also finds this to be as impressive as I have.”

“Your Highness······. This old man. This old bat beseeches Your Highness. Although the Keuncuska may be a group of humble merchants, it is a place that helps the rivers and streams of the demon continent connect and flow into a lifeline. Please, consider the five hundred years of service which we had done and grant us mercy······.”

Lord Dantalian smiled more softly.

“Since you have accumulated all of that gold from those five hundred years of prosperity, if we take that away, then our expedition funds will never fall short.”

“Your Highness, O Greater Being······.”

In the end, the chief broke down into tears.

While shedding an endless stream of tears, the chief kissed the top of His Highness’ foot.

“This one shall obey all of Your Highness’ commands. Please, bestow upon this one your royal grace, have mercy upon this one······.”

It is night.

I silently stared at a flickering candle in the tent. The flame continues to burn while completely oblivious to the fact that it was burning its own wick. On the floor where the wax drippings were falling, there was a single aged vampire.

Defeat is stigmatic and desecrating.

Because it has always been like that, that was what defeat was. If one is going to enter the gambling den of authority, then one must clearly know when to stop.

The gamblers who have had a peek at authority gamble whenever the sun has set and the night has begun. Betting their honor. Betting their wealth. The gamblers who have tossed their honor and wealth into gambling dens will, in the end, stake their own lives, but not only the life which they had lived until now, but the lives which they will continue to live from now on as well.

One day.

And then, one day, you realize that you no longer have any more days left to bet at the gambling den.

Until that day comes, Chief Ivar Lodbrok must devote the remainder of his life to His Highness Dantalian. That was the job which the chief had to carry out for the rest of his life.

His Highness stroked the head of the groveling vampire.

“From this day forth.”

And he then recited to him his new livelihood.

“You now have to kill the ones whom I command you to kill. Even if I were to tell you to throw away that old body of a doll, which you are currently borrowing, then you must do so without hesitation.”

“······.”

“If there is someone whom I have ordered you to spare, then spare them. Sitri may have sent you here to spy on me, but I shall send you to do the exact opposite. You shall spy on Sitri and report back to me. Become a double-spy and follow my commands.”

“······.”

“I advise that you do not even dream of betraying me. If I meet an untimely demise, then a rather interesting last will will be sent to Her Excellency Barbatos and Her Highness Paimon. I was considerate enough to make it so that even you, Chief, will be able to enjoy yourself to the fullest along with everyone else. You will also gradually come to know of this, but despite my looks, I am quite the considerate man.”

“This one has no questions, Your Highness······.”

“Tonight, the Crescent Alliance will withdraw.”

Without a sound.

A drop of wax flowed down the side of a candle.

“This has already been decided.”

His Highness Dantalian was smiling broadly.

The light formed a yellow mask on His Highness’ royal visage and trembled.

“Since you had sent that letter to His Excellency Marbas so soon, our schedule has gone awry.”

“······.”

“At this rate, we will have to face against the main force of the Crusaders and the dispatched troops of the Neutral Faction at both our front and rear, but we do not have the time for this.”

“Then how will we persuade the Neutral Faction······?”

“Is there a reason for us to appease the Neutral Faction in a deliberately swift fashion?”

“Pardon?”

“Allow the Crusaders to chase after us from behind and also allow Marbas to be filled with wrath and try to interfere with our retreat.”

“······?”

I also tilted my head at the words His Highness had just spoken.

For him to say that we had no reason to appease the Neutral Faction in a deliberately swift fashion. What did this mean? His Highness made an ambiguous smile and turned to look at me.

“Lapis. How about you try answering instead?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Starting from now, try thinking from a different perspective. Our present situation appears urgent because we are trapped in our own shoes. Now consider the enemies’ points of view. Which side is currently in more of a rush?”

“······.”

I see.

“For Marbas, a purge had occurred in the main force during his absence. Would Marbas not be in a hurry due to this? For Elizabeth, she still does not know the intention behind our purge. Therefore, would Elizabeth not be in a rush?”

I could feel my eyes narrowing.

“Our forces are busy and their forces are busy as well, however, speed is always bound to be relative. Their forces are presumably more in a rush than our own.”

“That is correct. Lapis. In situations like this, what would be the appropriate way to act?”

I thought for a moment before answering.

“······Pacifying the Neutral Faction is, of course, important. However, it is not as important as pushing our enemies into a state of confusion. Persuasion is something that can be pushed aside for later. In our present situation, our forces must focus on throwing the situation further into chaos.”

This was it.

This is the answer that I had come to. In short, chaos.

Excluding our own forces, we have to impose a battle of speed in order to prevent any of the groups from recovering their senses. By doing so, we will cause a greater state of confusion. By withdrawing before even a day can pass after we had carried out our purge, and by crossing over the Black Mountains within several days after having decided the retreat, we will push ahead and stab all of the Demon Lords who had betrayed our kind.

An unprecedented battle of speed.

That was the sole thing which the Crescent Alliance should be aiming at achieving.

What Lord Dantalian had pointed out is correct. Both the Imperial Princess of the Empire and Marbas of the Neutral Faction had reacted faster than expected, but why does that matter?

There is no reason for us to be more panicked than necessary in our current plight. Essentially, the disconcerted side is theirs and not ours. We have the initiative. They will justly fear our latent energy as we were able to carry out our purge this quickly and this neatly.

We absolutely cannot lose this initiative.

In war, initiatives are secured solely through speed battles. The Imperial Princess of the Empire and Demon Lord Marbas are veterans. If we allow them to have even a moment of time, then they will immediately grasp the situation and attempt to steal the initiative. Time. It was solely a fight of time.

It was most likely because I had given the correct answer. His Highness grinned splendidly like a blooming poisonous plant.

“As expected of my love. That is so. Our forces will retreat immediately.”

I responded.

“As it so happens, the Imperial Princess had decided to clean out her own army, so a small panic has also occurred in the army of the Crusaders. The army which the Imperial Princess leads will become stronger. However, that is a strength that will come a day after. Our current situation is to deal with our aftermath, but this is actually an opportunity for us.”

Lord Dantalian then asked.

“Good. Truly remarkable. Lapis, what should be done in order for us to add a day onto the enemy and turn their one day into two?”

I answered.

“Shift the day which our forces are currently dealing with onto them. Our forces are currently executing the common soldiers of the seven Demon Lords, but it is troublesome. Killing is also a painstaking task. While sparing the common soldiers and leaving them behind in the military encampment, the rest of us shall leave.”

The candlelight swayed.

“Aha! For the Crusaders, this would be like a bunch of free exploits had fallen from the sky. An opportunity for them to obtain quite the number of enemy heads without having to shed a single drop of blood. During this war, if you exclude the Habsburg Empire, the Crusaders have fought quite pitifully. Would the other countries not be thirsty for exploits? This would be no different to a waterhole appearing before them while they are parched.”

The light flickered.

“Yes. They will undoubtedly become blinded. Although the Imperial Princess may see through the fact that this is all a trap, it does not matter. The Imperial Princess is the one who had obtained a monopoly of all of the glory by using the troops of the other nations. The other commanders are without a doubt jealous of the Imperial Princess. The time for them to pay the price for jealousy has now come.”

His Highness met his lips with mine.

“The enemy will become divided.” (Dantalian)

I met my gaze with His Highness’.

“The enemy will become weaker.” (Lapis Lazuli)

His Highness and I, for a long moment, overlapped our breaths with the sound of the other’s breathing. Lips slipped on lips and a moan went obliquely astray. Within the air where the candlelight was swaying, we held our breaths for some time. A senile vampire was staring at us, but it did not particularly matter. If a couple were to be concerned about the watchful eyes of their slave, then how would they possibly sleep together?

His Highness and I whispered to one another as if we were fornicating with our voices.

“Since our forces will have to push ahead, it will not be an easy path.”

“Our soldiers will have to march as lightly as possible.”

“How should we handle the provisions? I am not sure who, but would it not be difficult for you if we do not have a separate person to handle the supplies?”

“Yes. Although this one is not sure who.”

And then.

Without the need to say who was first.

His Highness and I turned our heads and looked down at the vampire who was kneeling on the floor. We stared at the top chief who had the most important role whenever the supply lines of the entire Crescent Alliance are pillaged. We gazed, at the person who had just recently become His Highness’ slave.

“······.”

The vampire received my and His Highness’ gaze in silence. Even though he had witnessed the sight of one of the most sacred individuals in all of demonkind mix together with one of the lowliest, the vampire solely had a wretched complexion. It is most likely because he understands his position.

Chief Lodbrok lowered himself even further and yielded with a voice that the defeated had to have.

“Give this one your command, Your Highness. This one shall obey.”

It is late in the night.

The candlelight spread a crimson color over the low breathing sound of the witches, and the sound of Lady Farnese sleeping with gentle gasps flared out faintly.

While listening to the breathing of the shadows flowing in the night, I believed that this will be a long night.

The King of Peasants, Rank 71st, Dantalian

Empire Calendar: Year 1506, Month 4, Day 11

Polles, Bruno Plains, Army of the Crescent Alliance

Witch. Illegitimate child. Outcast.

They are all I have. I am all they have. Since a place where the only thing everyone had was the people around them, was a place that was strong on the inside, there was no way that it could fall apart. Similar to a flame that burned as a single mass no matter how many times you broke it apart, we were one. In the end, all we needed was a small pile of wood. And a certain amount of darkness.

Elizabeth. Sitri. Marbas. They were all obstacles that were complicated to deal with. Dealing with them one person at a time would be endless and boundless.

Therefore, let us burn them all at once.

“Are you done with your preparations?”

It was the end of the night before dawn could completely approach.

I put on my coat and exited the tent. In the wide open space where the executions had been taking place, Barbatos was standing there while chewing on an apple.

It wasn’t just Barbatos.

There was also a bunch from the Plains Faction and the Mountain Faction who had avoided the purge······. There were no traitors here. Everyone here was either loyal to the blaze known as Barbatos or dedicated to the flame known as Paimon.

They roared at their units and lined them up.

— Stop making a racket, you punks. If you were ordered to do something, then do it. What’s with all these complaints? Don’t make me whip your buttocks······.

— Are you hungry for breakfast? All right. If someone finishes their preparations slower than the Mountain Faction, then I will behead that person and personally perform an ancestral rite for them, so if you wish to eat memorial service food, then keep whining······.

The soldiers had wound up moving before dawn could arrive, so they were sluggish here and there. However, I could see with my own eyes that their limbs were gradually becoming swifter. Everything was proceeding smoothly.

I spoke.

“Your Excellency. My unit has finished preparations.”

“Good.”

Barbatos grinned.

“Our Sir Dantalian, whose profound plot and lofty stratagem can cause both the heaven and earth to tremble, I acknowledge your annoyingness and somewhat acknowledge the brightness of your noggin. However, military affairs isn’t something that can be easily managed with just your head. We will now be marching vigorously for an entire week. In the end, will deadwood like you be able to follow us without getting exhausted?”

I shrugged.

“I have already experienced this sort of rigorous marching back when I was coming to Your Excellency’s rescue, but it turned out to be nothing special.”

“See? He’s an annoying son of a bitch.”

Barbatos burst into laughter.

Beside her, Paimon was covering her mouth with her fan. As these two Demon Lords respectively had pure, silvery white hair and red hair that was as crimson as blood, their figures could be clearly distinguished even during the night.

At that moment, a crow cried out from somewhere and flew up into the pitch black night sky. The crow flapped its wings above the area where the torches of the military camp could reach.

I let out an ‘Ah’ sound and spoke towards Barbatos.

“Your Excellency.”

“Hm?”

“Please kill that crow.”

Barbatos munched on her apple.

“Why?”

“It is a trifling creature which a spy had sent.”

Snap.

Barbatos snapped her fingers the moment I had finished that sentence. The sound of the air itself being split grew distant in an instant before lightly brushing through the air the crow was in. The crow sprayed black blood as it fell somewhere. Barbatos gave an order to her Royal Guards.

“Find it and bring it here.”

The soldiers brought the corpse of the crow and presented it to us around the time Barbatos had finished eating her apple and had tossed the core. There was nothing tied around the crow’s ankles. Barbatos looked at me.

“There’s nothing?”

I took out a dagger and cut its belly open. Brown and blue colors were mixed together in its entrails. I dug through it and cut its stomach open. There was something inside of the stomach. I grabbed it with my fingers and showed it to the two corps commanders.

It was a note that was folded many times over.

“Heeh······.”

“Oh dear.”

Barbatos and Paimon both leaned in to look at the note with interested looks on their faces. The note was small, so it only contained a single line. The handwriting was ugly so it was clear that the writer had written this desperately.

Month 4, Day 11. Midnight. Crescent Alliance, preparing to withdraw.

Barbatos smirked.

“We’ve taken care of the traitors, but now it’s spies. The state of this person’s army must be quite remarkable. Haa, I have no idea what hope I’m trying to bask in by going to war with these things.”

“A monarch is an ocean, Barbatos. You have to indiscriminately accept even the murky streams of the people.”

“Just like your crotch?”

“Are those actually the only words that have been inputted into your brain?”

“I don’t know. Fuck. What do you expect me to do when curses come out all on their own whenever I see your face? Either change your face or take responsibility for my death. I know. You can’t do either, right? Just take the curses.”

Even while Barbatos and Paimon were spitting out the dawn air into the heart of the night, the troops had started to gradually become more in line. The sound of metal and footsteps pushed their way into the air. The banners that represented each respective Demon Lord swayed in an orderly manner. Rank 12th Sitri, Rank 13th Beleth, Rank 16th Zepar······.

Paimon spoke.

“This lady cannot believe that there was even once a time where she had had intercourse with you. With what belief did this lady ever consider you to be even remotely charming······.”

“What a coincidence. The same goes for me too.”

A couple of servants brought a bottle of wine and a pair of wine glasses to Barbatos. Barbatos poured a single glass and handed it to Paimon. Red wine. Before going to a large war, Demon Lords would always drink wine that is as red as blood in order to substitute formalities.

“So let’s go together, you fucking bitch.”

In the center of the troops. Barbatos’ Royal Guards raised their banners. In the sky, where the sun had yet to sprout, the torches acted in the sun’s stead and released a small gleam of light, and in that spot where the light illuminated was the maxim which Barbatos had formerly written fluttering in the wind.

Cultivate with my blood.

Befitting the supreme ruler who had declared she would present extensive plains to demonkind, it was arrogant. Barbatos was holding out the glass to Paimon.

Paimon lowered her fan and let out a sigh. She received the glass and slightly lowered her back. She then linked arms with Barbatos and⎯⎯⎯held the wine in her mouth. The two Demon Lords who had once vowed that they would live solely as enemies and die solely as enemies have, at this very moment, shared a glass that signified their renewed blood alliance.

I wonder if they had awaited solely this vow. The single group of flag bearers that followed Paimon raised their banners high.

Glory.

Perpetuity.

Eternity.

Make glory perpetual and bask in eternity.

Befitting the supreme ruler who had promised the demon continent eternal peace, it was a haughty maxim. Once Barbatos and Paimon had raised their banners, similar to when a signal fire is lit and the other signal fires on a mountain range follow suit, the other Demon Lords raised their banners wholly according to their ranks.

Our devotion is for her······

My wrath is larger than your fear······

Thou shall ask after the enemy······

All at once, the soldiers threw their torches on the ground and extinguished them. Darkness enveloped the world. It was still deep in the night, and as all of the flames to kindle the deep night had been extinguished, everything became silent. The instant the flames had disappeared, the maxims which the banners were proudly displaying were all plunged into darkness. The banners were extinguished and only their outlines remained in the darkness.

And then, after several dozen banners.

Since my banner was the final signal fire, it was the final banner to waver as an outline. It was deep in the night. Since it was shrouded in darkness, I had no way to see the words written on my banner. However, why would that matter?

During this war, I have constantly faced against things that I could not see. As long as this war was my war, this world was also my world, and that banner will command this and that side of the Black Mountains as solely my banner. Similar to how I am able to figure out many things despite being unable to see them, I knew the words that were fixated there.

Authority for blood.

Blood for authority.

Like a fire that burned as a single flame even if it were separated into many parts.

Even when Barbatos and Paimon argued heavily, the expedition of the Crescent Alliance continued. There was no need to even say it now since they have joined hands. We were strong. And we shall burn even stronger.

Barbatos spoke as she sipped the wine.

“One day, one of us will probably die.”

Paimon spoke.

“We will die eventually anyway. This is an undeniable fact.”

“Did you know? The way you or I will die has roughly been determined. If you die, then you will do so by my hands, and if I die, then I will do so by your hands. We have a relationship that has determined how the other will die.”

“So what? That is similar to the line which you had said to this lady 500 years ago when you had confessed to me.”

“No, I was just curious. As I said, if we die, then we will do so by each other’s hands, and as you had said, we’re going to die anyway. If that’s the case, then think about it. If I end up being the one to remain, then wouldn’t that mean I’ll be killed by someone other than you? Who would that be?”

Barbatos smiled.

“If it’s not you, then I wonder who’s going to end up killing me. I can’t imagine myself being killed by anyone other than you. The fact that it can’t be imagined, the fact that it can’t be predicted. Isn’t this the biggest problem for people like us? Hey. Paimon. Can you imagine it?”

Paimon beamed.

“Stop talking bullshit and just drink the alcohol.”

“Haa, bitch. We don’t understand each other.”

Slowly.

The two Demon Lords emptied their wine glasses.

The Demon Lords threw their glasses on the ground and shattered them at the same time. The glass broke into a million pieces and scattered. Boisterously. Irreversibly. The wine which represented blood will go into their respective prayers and linger. Since the glasses were shattered and they had lost their way back, the vow was eternal.

“Well, whatever. Now then······.”

Barbatos took out a piece of parchment. It was the letter that was sent by Marbas. Once Barbatos held the letter tightly in one hand, a wavering that was like a pure white blizzard burst out and reduced the piece of parchment to ashes in an instant.

Yes.

We are simply going to ignore this letter.

Whether Elizabeth pursues us or Marbas blocks our path, let them do what they want. We shall ignore them all and return deep into the Black Mountains. Pursue us and try to block us as much as you want.

Demon Lord Barbatos, the girl who always lived as the fiercest flame grinned.

“⎯⎯⎯Shall we go home, you dogs?”

Now then.

Let us dance.

Kinslayer, Imperial Princess of the Empire, Elizabeth von Habsburg

Empire Calendar: Year 1506, Month 4, Day 11

Polles, Bruno Plains, Army of the Crusaders

Our military encampment had become disorderly at night and we had beheaded twenty-two harlots. Seven small-fry administrators were made to disembowel themselves and two hundred forty-seven soldiers were burned alive. Once we had captured the two common soldiers who had escaped and dismembered them, the disorder in our army had vanished. A late spring fog had settled at dawn.

“······.”

It was quiet.

It was excessively silent.

Since a purge had started yesterday evening in the army of the Crescent Alliance, it was only appropriate for a couple of crows to have flown over here by now and given us the news about the aftermath. However, the only sound that could be heard was from the birds that lived in the wild. There was not even a single crow flying over from the other side of the Bruno Plains.

On the open ground where the heads of the harlots were hung and the soldiers were burned to death, the priests sang all at once.

— Forgive them. Forgive them. O Goddess of All who resides in the clearest of skies, please do not toss away these deeply sinful children even if they rise up. We shall look into their deep sins and devote our lives to allowing their souls to pass on. Watch over the heavens with mercy and magnanimity. Please forgive them, please forgive them. Please take in the souls of heaven with the mercy of heaven······.

All of a sudden, the silence felt ominous.

When it is silent on all four sides and you are unable to grasp anything, there are people who favor that silence and there are people who are hostile towards it. I am a personage who always prefers the latter.

I ordered my commanders.

“Send in our scouts. Send them close. Since the morning fog is thick, it will be difficult to carry out espionage. Reconnoiter closely, but do so while crawling on the floor and not on horseback.”

“What should we tell them to scout for?”

“Anything.”

Once the time it takes to have a single meal had passed, the scouts returned.

“We could not see anything, Your Highness. Loud shouting and screams could occasionally be heard, but we could not hear anything more than that. Although we could not see properly due to the fog, it appears that the enemy’s camp and wooden fences are still sound.”

“How close did you go to scout?”

“We had crawled just close enough to be barely in the firing range of the enemy crossbows.”

“Go further. Go further in and report back to me.”

Another feeling of unease was added onto my heart. The scouts returned after taking twice the amount of time than previously.

“Your Highness. We could not see anything. There are no enemy guards in their watchtowers. There are torches burning in each watchtower, but there is no enemy soldier looking after the fire, so it is extremely bizarre. The fog is indeed severe, but once we peered between the narrow gaps of the wooden fences, we were somewhat able to make out the enemy’s border area. There was no one wandering around the outskirts.”

“Were there even no patrols?”

“Yes.”

“Were you still able to hear the shouts and screams?”

“Yes.”

“Go in further. Climb over the fences and scout even the enemy camp. If it feels as if there are no obstacles, then go in deeply and take a look around. I shall allow you to go on horseback. I shall leave it to you guys, so move at your own discretion.”

The ominous feeling continued to stack and stack until it eventually blackened my heart.

The sound of Demon Lord Dantalian laughing softly attached to that blackness like a scab. ······Did that man. Did they. Around the time an ember had sparked and was about to engulf my heart in flames, the scouts returned after a very long period of time.

“Your Highness. In the center of the enemy camp, there were corpses lined up and common soldiers, the numbers of which reach up to nearly the thousands, bound in either chains or tied up by ropes. They were all groaning as they had fallen into a pit. They are not prisoners from our side, but solely demonkind. We had gone through a couple of the enemy quarters, but there was no one. There were several scarecrows awkwardly looming over the wooden fences and the torches were all burning, but that was it. Other than that, there was some tower of skulls that was piled up high, but other than that, nothing else could be seen.”

“Is there truly nothing at all?”

“Yes.”

The commanders looked at each other with perplexed faces. It was then that the ominous feeling which was licking at only my heart had seeped out and flowed into the mouths of the commanders. The commanders carefully glanced at me.

“Your Highness. We cannot lower our guards. The enemy may be using a deceitful tactic in order to draw us in······.”

“No.”

I shook my head.

“They have run away.”

“······.”

“Inform the other armies of the fact that the enemy has retreated. We must tell them quickly. Inform them that the Imperial Princess of Habsburg wishes to have a conference with them.”

The group of priests was still performing their memorial service within the military encampment. While ringing their handbells, they conveyed their hymn past the fog which the eyes of the people could not see through. Since the deaths of humans were an urgent situation to the priests, it seems they had to notify the world of it with their hymn and bells.

— Forgive them, please forgive them. Even if these children do not know the depths of their sins, please do not cast them away. We shall bury these children, so, O Goddess of All, if there is a soul which we were unable to entomb, then please nurse them in Heaven. Please bestow upon us your benevolence. Forgive them, please forgive them······.

Empire Calendar: Year 1506, Month 4, Day 11.

The army of the Crescent Alliance is retreating.

TL note: Sorry for taking a while with this chapter. I finally finished my public service, so my last few days were rather busy and I also took a short moment of rest afterward. It also didn’t help that this chapter is over 21k words long. This chapter was incredibly frustrating to translate because the dialogue between Dant, Ivar, and Lapis used a lot of old-timey words that aren’t used anymore, so I had to dig through a dictionary and other referential sites nearly every other line during that section. The structuring of their sentences was also rather complicated, so that didn’t help.

Christ, I normally don’t get this frustrated while translating, but this chapter was a doozy.

The next chapter is going to take a while. Not because it’s as long as this chapter, but because there’s a lot of black pages, so it’ll require a lot of touching up. A section of the next chapter is done in a rather intricate fashion, so I want to do it as perfect as possible. At the least, I’ll get it done in a week, and at most, I’ll get it out in 2 weeks. Just hope that the next chapter isn’t as frustrating.

See you guys in the next release.

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Dungeon Defense - Dungeon Defense - Volume 5 Chapter 1: Chapter 1

Dungeon Defense
Dungeon Defense - Volume 5 Chapter 1: Chapter 1