'Just as mortals draw breath, all things in nature breathe as well. Disease is no different—where there is one pause, there is one exhale, and soon the continent will be engulfed by the exhale of plague. I call it the Black Cloud.'
Prophecy.
From ancient times, it has been widely known as the Demon Lord's exclusive talent.
Back when Demon Lords were worshipped as gods, it was called an oracle. As the ages passed—or perhaps as the mysticism of the world gradually faded—people stopped believing in Demon Lord prophecies.
Demon Lords with the gift of prophecy had become rare to the point of extinction. Demonkin scholars generally agree on the theory that "Demon Lords possessed intellect far superior to common mortals, so people mistook their foresight of the future for prophecy."
His Excellency Dantalion possessed the power of prophecy?
Impossible. Lapis's rational mind immediately objected. No matter how one looked at it, foreseeing the future was an impossibility.
……And yet, had he been hiding this kind of overwhelming pressure all along?
Lapis's mouth went dry. Dantalion's voice hammered at her like thunder, over and over again.
'In ages past, countless cumulus clouds swept across the land. But which cloud has ever covered the entire continent? A great cloud, a great calamity—shall mock the history of mortals.'
'If I may ask.'
Lapis spoke. Without even realizing it, her manner of speech had shifted—from simple polite language to the most exalted honorifics. The person before her was no longer a mere client. He was a king.
'How much damage…… do you foresee will befall this continent?'
Dantalion smiled thinly.
'How impatient. Did you think I was using allegorical rhetoric to confuse you? Prophecy is the act of using the power of spoken word to summon an event that should not yet have occurred into the present. If it is manifested with too much precision, the fate of the world may mistake the flow of events and a great catastrophe may occur.'
'I was ignorant and committed an offense.'
Lapis immediately bowed her head.
'Forgiven. In this day and age, when Demon Lords who observe the flow of time have all but vanished, who would remember the etiquette of prophecy? Young lady, engrave my words upon your heart. If the continent has three arrows, the Black Cloud shall shatter one of those three arrows. If the continent has nine arrows, three of those nine arrows shall rot away.'
'……!'
That meant one-third of the continental races would be annihilated.
Lapis felt a chill run down her spine. One-third — that meant tens of millions, no, if you included the non-human races, hundreds of millions of lives would be slaughtered. The scale of devastation was too great to even utter as a joke.
She questioned whether Dantalion could truly predict a plague. Furthermore, even if he could, she assumed he would only point out some minor outbreak. Epidemics happened everywhere, all the time. Somewhere on the continent, there was surely a plague going around right now.
If he pinpointed something like that and called it a prophecy, Dantalion would technically never be lying.
But a prophecy that one-third of all races would vanish? And within two months?
It was far too risky to use as a lie.
In the worst case, if nothing happened after two months, Dantalion would lose her trust entirely. Without any room for excuses. Losing the trust of a dedicated liaison would mean losing the trust of the entire Kunkuska Trading Company.
Could it possibly be true?
"There is no need to fear so much. Nothing in this world is without a natural enemy, and the Black Cloud is no exception. The more formidable its power, the more often its nemesis turns out to be something utterly insignificant. A small weed that sprouts in any mountain valley can defeat the Black Cloud. I intend to gather those weeds in advance."
She understood the Demon Lord's intentions immediately. A monopoly. What every merchant dreamed of — that was what the Demon Lord desired. He intended to borrow financial power from the trading company to secure that monopoly.
"In two months, the kings, queens, ministers, and generals of the Human Realm will be screaming for a mere weed. At that point, I intend to supply the medicinal herbs and reap enormous profits. Lapis Lazuli, consider my proposal carefully."
Silence flowed through the cave.
"......"
Lapis's instincts warned her that the Demon Lord was speaking the truth.
A truly unprecedented catastrophe would indeed occur. A crisis could be converted into an opportunity. An unprecedented crisis would give rise to an unprecedented opportunity.
Meanwhile, Lapis's reason was violently rejecting the idea.
Instinct or reason? Standing before the crossroads, Lapis remained silent for a long while.
She finally managed to speak.
"I'm sorry, but I cannot agree."
"Oh ho."
Surprisingly, the Demon Lord didn't seem displeased. No—he seemed intrigued.
'Recite your reasons.'
Lapis felt as though she'd been swallowed by a balrog's maw. Refusal was permissible. But if she had dismissed the Demon Lord's proposal over some trivial reason, she would pay with her life.
That was what his eyes were saying.
She steadied herself, recalling her convictions, and spoke clearly and deliberately so as not to be overwhelmed by the Demon Lord's aura.
'First, there is no guarantee that a plague will actually break out. You, Lord Dantalion, pointed out that an epidemic would arise. You also stated that it would spread across the entire continent, annihilating one-third of all races.'
However, Lapis continued.
'This is not an assertion. There is no evidence. The Trading Company does not invest money in prophets.'
A merchant had to be rational above all else. Lapis believed that with all her heart.
Even if her convictions led to her death at Dantalion's hands, so be it. For demonkin, death was not some hazy future waiting to arrive—it was a threat that followed like a shadow at all times. Lapis had steeled herself for death.
But something unexpected happened. The steam-like pressure the Demon Lord had been relentlessly radiating all this while vanished in an instant. Dantalion had reverted to the ordinary man he'd been just moments ago.
He smiled gently.
'How about this—just let the Trading Company know that I've applied for a loan. And report to your superiors what kind of business plan I have. It's fine if they don't lend me the money.'
What followed was something she hadn't expected. It turned out Dantalion had known from the start that she would refuse. He understood the Trading Company's position.
He had simply wanted an opportunity to earn the Trading Company's trust. Lapis felt as though she'd been struck by a hammer.
Right—if he could truly prophesy, there was no reason to obsess over the plague alone!
What a terrifying ability.
But there was something even more terrifying. The Demon Lord himself. Despite possessing the staggering power of prophecy, he wasn't ruled by it. Instead, he had weaponized it—to plant fear and trust in Lapis.
And the moment his objective was achieved, he immediately reverted to his ordinary demeanor. No—was it really ordinary? Could it be that the version of him she had always considered normal had also been—for this very moment, an act?
Lapis berated herself. It was a painful regret.
Chapter 71. For Her to Let Her Guard Down Just Because She Was Ranked Seventy-First! Was the Demon Lord not still the Demon Lord, even in death?
If anything, the Demon Lord was being diligent. He was sharpening his blade to face her—a blade forged for a single moment.
Lapis felt ashamed. Suddenly, she worried that the Demon Lord might be drastically overestimating her. She held nothing but meager influence within the Kunkuska Trading Company. She wasn't confident she could live up to the Demon Lord's expectations. Without thinking, she averted her gaze from the Demon Lord.
'…There is something I haven't told you, Lord Dantalion.'
Lapis explained—just how lowly a person she was.
The Demon Lord would surely come to despise her too, but there was nothing she could do about it. It was a fact he would learn sooner or later. If the Demon Lord harbored false expectations of her, it was better to shatter them now. It was easier to endure the rejection before any bond had formed than to face his contempt later…
But.
'So what?'
Dantalion was different.
'What's wrong with being a hybrid?'
Even though he was the supreme Demon Lord, who above all others should have despised mongrels.
'Don't worry about that sort of thing.'
He declared it to be a matter of absolutely no consequence.
Lapis stared blankly at the Demon Lord.
Who had ever said such a thing to her? This was a first in her life.
Even those who had approached her with affection eventually scowled and left. There were no exceptions. Not once in the past hundred years. Her life had been one where she had to think of farewells before a meeting had even begun.
It was the words she had always wanted to hear—the longing that, having long since given up, had been twisted into a shape buried deep in her unconscious.
And she had heard it from the most exalted being in the Demon Realm.
Ah…
Lapis's heart churned like never before. She didn't want the other party to see her state. A merchant was finished the moment their weakness was exposed. So she hurried out of the dungeon. She could barely even remember what excuse she had made.
She returned to her office and stared at the ceiling. She couldn't suppress her emotions no matter what.
It's a good thing — if Demon Lord Dantalion was originally that brilliant, her own chances of rising in the world skyrocketed. She needed to treat the Demon Lord with genuine sincerity from now on. She repeated this to herself over and over, but… none of it could cover up what she was feeling right now.
In the end, Lapis couldn't hold back and muttered.
"What a strange Demon Lord."
Even so, her emotions wouldn't settle.
Lapis tilted her head with a blank expression, telling herself today was just a strange day. Then she began drafting the report to send up. The document started with a line suggesting that the Demon Lord Dantalion might possess the ability of prophecy.
"I collected two iron ores."
"Awesome, two more!"
Meanwhile, a certain Demon Lord was doing nothing but swinging her pickaxe with all her might. She had absolutely no idea what was going on.
Two months had passed since Lapis's threat.
Roughly once a week, an adventuring party invaded the dungeon.
Perhaps it was because the game was still in its early stages — every party consisted of fifteen members. Their ranks were all F-rank without exception. If this had been a proper dungeon, an F-rank party would have been annihilated the moment they set foot inside.
Of course, my Demon Lord's Castle — a dungeon I was too embarrassed and ashamed to even call a Demon Lord's Castle — was far from a proper one. Every single F-rank adventurer posed a life-threatening danger.
So right now, I was lying flat on the ground, completely drained.
"Huh? Hey, there's someone collapsed here."
"It really is! Come take a look! Hey, wake up!"
An adventurer approached and slapped my cheeks.
I groaned.
"Nngg… wa…ter…"
"Tch! You're dehydrated."
Water splashed across my face. Someone must have poured their waterskin over me. The liquid seeped through the gaps in my cheap helmet. Like a dog in the dead of summer, I stuck out my tongue and frantically lapped up the water.
"G-guh, thank you."
"We're all in a rough spot — gotta look out for each other, right? Say, lad. How'd you end up like this?"
"Well, you see..."
I silently shouted the skill activation in my mind.
"Acting skill is activated."
"The die of luck slips from your hand! The probability that the listener will doubt your claim is reduced 'slightly'."
"I entered this dungeon about three days ago."
After that, I launched into my pitiful tale.
I'm Hansen from Wellsen Village. I entered the dungeon together with the villagers, but we were ambushed by monsters and scattered in all directions. My guide companion died early on, leaving me completely lost inside the dungeon. I wandered through the caves day and night for three days straight until my body finally gave out and I collapsed... Even by my own standards, that was a stellar performance.
But the people here were far too naive.
"Oh, that's just heartbreaking!"
"This is the most wretched tale I've ever heard in my life."
"*Sob.* Young man, please, don't give up and keep on living. No matter how awful this world is, surely a brighter day will come. We have to believe in a better future! Yes, sir — believe, we must!"
The inside of the cave became a cauldron of tears.
These adventurers had spent their entire lives without a shred of sunshine, their faces weathered and rough. Tears and snot streamed down those leathery brown faces like twin creeks. The adventurers blew their noses with a resonant honk and clapped my shoulders with snot-slicked palms. Gag.
'They really are weak against acting.'
Even the Wellsen Village expedition team hadn't been this susceptible to a performance.
Then again, I was wearing a helmet right now. The horns that marked me as the Demon Lord were invisible to them. The difference between assuming someone was the Demon Lord versus just a human must be enormous, after all. I watched notification windows pop up one after another, confirming that my Affinity with the adventurers was rising, and nodded to myself.
"Young man. No, little friend — mind if I ask you a few things about this dungeon?"
============================ Afterword =============================
Why did the intimidation suddenly vanish?
It's because Lapis clearly "rejected" it, triggering a "failure judgment" on the Acting skill and causing its effect to disappear, but... heh. There's no way our dear Lapis would know that. Feel free to think what you like.
Thanks to everyone who sent recommendation coins. I'd also like to thank those who gave coupons. Have a great weekend!