I opened my mouth, then closed it again. If I spoke too hastily, my voice would start to tremble.
Ninth in rank. The Demon Lord who loved humans more than anyone else and ultimately betrayed her own kind. Players of Dungeon Attack called her the greatest harlot of the age, or alternatively, a woman consumed by innocent, unrequited love. From the demons' perspective, she was the worst traitor imaginable. That was the Paimon I had known all this time.
That she had been involved in the founding of Batavia — it didn't appear in the game's storyline, let alone any setting materials!
I finally managed to compose my voice.
"What do you mean the Batavia Republic wasn't created by humans themselves?"
"Now you're finally flustered."
Paimon covered her mouth and giggled. A chill ran down my spine. Who was the woman standing before me? Who had I been dealing with all this time?
"Building a republic was no easy task. Everything was new. To put it in dramatic terms, the young lady essentially had to recreate the world from scratch. Many mistakes were made — truly, so many mistakes."
"......"
"But I succeeded."
The surrounding scenery shifted to show a village. It was a quiet fishing hamlet — just a few modest shacks huddled together around tidal flats and a ferry boat. When Paimon waved her hand, time accelerated rapidly.
Residents gathered in droves. A pier was built. A harbor took shape. Tall buildings rose up, and white stone walls were erected. It became a city. Stone pavement covered the plains and swamps. A dozen or so canals cut through the heart of the city, and people glided back and forth along them in gondolas.
Bells pealed from the grand cathedral, echoing distantly across the sky of the blue sea city.
"It took two hundred years to build Amstel, the capital of the Batavia Republic."
"......"
"During that time, I mobilized the wealth, intelligence networks, and military power that had been accumulated to wage the War of Independence. Fifty more years for that. Then, in the name of inheriting the ideals of an ancient republic, I instigated the Revolutionary War. Sixty years for that. And finally, under the noble cause of liberating the non-human races, I incited the Liberation War. With the Fourth Crescent Alliance Army joining in, that took yet another sixty years."
Paimon rose from her seat.
She spread her arms wide, saying the scenery before her eyes was too lovely to bear. A grand fleet of dozens of massive warships sailed through the waters off Amstel.
"Four hundred years in the end. The young lady created the Batavia Federated Republic — a coalition of thirteen cities."
She stared in silence for a long while at the spectacle she had wrought. Paimon was overwhelming me through sheer quiet.
What stood there was no mere idealist. An ideal ceases to be fantasy the moment it possesses the power to realize itself. You couldn't compare her to the likes of Jack Orland. Paimon had an ideal, she had taken action to make it real, and she had actually succeeded.
Right in the middle of this medieval world dominated by kings and knights—she had single-handedly founded a republic.
What an undertaking that was.
Even calling it magnificent fell short. Far short. Even someone like me, who had picked up history of the original world in passing, could tell how absurd and outrageous this fantasy was. And Paimon had actually pulled it off.
'...!'
That was when my brain ran cold with a shiver. One hypothesis surfaced—one that was absurd, yet possibly, just possibly, true. Bael, the number-one supreme Demon Lord. Why had he assigned Paimon and the Crescent Alliance Army's First Legion to the Teuton Kingdom–Batavia Republic front of all places?
The worst-case scenario. A hypothesis far more sinister than anything I had considered until now rapidly assembled itself in my mind.
My throat went bone-dry. I drank my tea. I steadied myself as much as I could and took a slow sip. Then, with great effort, I parted my lips.
"Lord Bael and Lady Paimon... what is the nature of your relationship?"
Paimon turned her gaze from the sea back toward me. She looked impressed.
"As expected—you're remarkable. Truly astonishing. But yes."
She smiled, bashful and almost apologetic, as if somewhat embarrassed.
"It would be a bit presumptuous of this girl to say it outright."
That single line had already answered nearly everything.
"..."
I wrestled back my composure with everything I had. The mightiest ruler of the Demon Lord army—Bael, ranked number one. The ruler with the greatest territorial influence in the Demon Lord army—Paimon, ranked number nine. The two of them were locked in some kind of partnership, by one means or another.
'Damn it all. Barbatos, did you know about this?'
No. Barbatos didn't know. She respected Bael. She even called him "uncle" in a familiar way. If she knew that Paimon and Bael were connected, her attitude would be different. The Plains Faction didn't know about the alliance between the two... and probably, the other Demon Lords in the Mountain Faction didn't know either.
The entire picture had turned upside down.
It didn't matter what kind of peculiarities Paimon possessed — not anymore, not at this point.
Paimon truly wielded immense power. She didn't just command the Mountain Faction. She could manipulate a nation of the Human Realm from behind the curtain. Her influence would surely extend beyond the Batavia Republic, reaching out to subsume republicans lurking across every corner of the continent.
What's more… though he wasn't sure of the exact nature of their alliance, Demon Lord Bael was backing Paimon.
*This isn't a question of whether I cooperate or not.*
I swallowed.
*I have to cooperate.*
This was something I absolutely had to exploit. Her ideology lacking persuasiveness? I couldn't care less. A power broker whose reach touched the entire Demonkin army and human army alike was standing right before my eyes. I had to win her favor, earn her trust. By any means necessary, I had to turn this to my advantage.
I had already made up my mind to establish a clandestine rapport with Paimon.
"Dantalion — earlier you asked the young lady whether a republic of Demonkin, and further still, a republic shared by humans and Demonkin, could truly be realized. This is her answer."
She extended her arms and gestured toward the city.
"Yes. It can."
Paimon declared with certainty.
"The Batavia Republic accepts non-human races as citizens. Ten thousand elves and thirty thousand dwarves live side by side with humans in our cities. Two thousand years ago, elves and dwarves were treated as demons just the same. But today, that is no longer the case. Dantalion — what we take for reality today was nothing more than a dream once."
She spoke as though singing.
"A girl who has lived two thousand years can tell you this: time flows so achingly slow that it sometimes deceives our eyes, yet it advances even now with every second, every minute, not a single stride skipped. Some may call that the tide of history. Some may praise it as destiny woven by the goddess herself."
Paimon smiled gently.
"I call it the realization of a dream. Life is cruel and wretched — it never fails to disappoint us. And so perhaps one day, I and you — and eventually every human and every Demonkin — will grow so despairing of life that we abandon our dreams altogether. Perhaps that day, ideals will have degenerated into cheap punchlines, and no one will have the heart to cry out anymore about what is right and what is wrong."
She looked at me.
"But that day is not today."
"……."
"Someday, every great banner may fall and every warrior may perish. The gods may abandon the earth, leaving nothing but vengeance and deceit to haunt the continent like ghosts. The mountains may grow ever steeper and the valleys ever deeper, and the day when all people become slaves to one another may truly come. But that day is not today. ― Today, we take one step forward, believing that the day of destruction is never today, nor will it be tomorrow."
Paimon extended her right hand to me.
"Our feet exist so that we may walk, and our hands exist so that we may grasp something. I believe that. If not, then why do we, Demon Lords who are neither human nor Demonkin, still possess two feet and two hands?"
"……"
"Dantalion. Walk with me through today. And seize tomorrow."
I quietly gazed at her outstretched, porcelain-white hand.
Nightmares. A race that manipulates human dreams at will. They tease and satisfy people with all manner of pleasures, dwelling together with their partners in dreams for eternity. But the woman standing before me had abandoned the comfort of dreams and was advancing into reality itself. To turn reality itself into a dream.
That was precisely why she was rightfully called the Queen of Succubi.
"I have… a question."
There was one last thing weighing on my mind. I opened my mouth to resolve it. During the Dungeon Attack, Paimon had betrayed the demons. Why? I was so curious that I simply couldn't hold back.
"Of course. Ask me anything."
"It may seem like a strange question… I won't be able to give you a reason that would satisfy Lady Paimon as to why I'm asking. But it's a very important question. I'd appreciate it if you could answer as seriously as possible."
Paimon's expression turned grave. She nodded solemnly. I carefully chose my words and spoke.
"Let's say… there is an incredibly powerful human."
"How powerful?"
"Incredibly powerful. Ten times, a hundred times stronger than us. Not even the Empire's first-ranked swordsman, a Sword Master, could stand against him. All that remains in that human's path are the corpses of Demonkin. Even Great Demon Lord Bael could not defeat him alone."
Paimon wore an expression that said she couldn't quite follow, but she didn't raise any objection. She had accepted my request to answer as seriously as possible.
It was hardly unbelievable. But in this world — in the world of the Dungeon Attack — a Hero like that was truly destined to appear. That blade would cut down Captain Zepar. It would kill Brother Beleth. Even Barbatos would be beheaded, and Paimon — even you — would die a cold death.
And the Demon Lord's army would be driven from the continent.
"That human cunningly targets us, each Demon Lord, one by one. We would be defeated in succession. If things continue as they are, every single Demon Lord will fall in battle. In a situation like that, Lady Paimon… that is to say, if you were to face such a situation, what would you do?"
"……."
Paimon propped her chin on her hand. She tilted her head two or three times.
"Can't our Demon Lord army band together and attack him all at once?"
"No. That won't work. He doesn't command an army. He leads a small squad — at most, about fifteen people — and attacks us with them."
"So you're telling us to imagine a group of just fifteen who can defeat every one of us, one after another."
I nodded. Paimon sank into deep thought.
"Can't we eliminate him politically?"
"The greatest ruler in the Human Realm trusts him completely."
"Hmm. Is the Human Realm unified?"
I shook my head.
"No, it's not."
"The greatest ruler in the scenario Dantalion described — which country does he rule? The Habsburg Empire? The Anatolia Empire?"
"……The Habsburg Empire. Not the empire that has been routed by the Crescent Alliance Army like it is now, but the empire reborn as a fully powerful nation."
Paimon twitched the corner of her lips and let out a low "Hmm~."
"Then if it were me, I would fracture the Human Realm."
"……."
"The Habsburg Empire sits at the heart of the continent. When it is powerful, it exerts influence across the entire continent — but if you think about it differently, that means it has many enemies on all sides. Yes. For instance, if it were me, I would incite the Frank Empire or the Kingdom of Bretagne."
I was quietly moved.
Without realizing it, Paimon had become engrossed in my scenario and continued speaking.
"If the Habsburgs keep growing like this, they'll become a threat. You must actively work to keep the Habsburg Empire in check. One of those two nations will take the bait. If we play our cards right, we can even steer the two nations into an alliance. That way, we provoke a war among the humans themselves. And while the Human Realm is thrown into chaos, we eliminate that powerful human."
So it was true.
So it was you, Paimon, who orchestrated the schism within the Human Realm in Dungeon Attack.
While most Demon Lords were falling to the Hero without so much as a fighting chance—.
"How about it, Dantalion? Doesn't this make it possible?"
Paimon.
You, of all people, had been earnestly planning the political annihilation of the Hero.
"……Indeed, it was a masterstroke of the highest order. But unfortunately, that plan also failed. The sovereign ruling the Habsburg Empire was truly unprecedented in history in sheer power—both the Frank Empire and the Kingdom of Bretagne were utterly destroyed."
"……Dantalion."
Paimon glanced over at me.
"How can such a sovereign possibly exist? It's already hard enough to accept the premise that there's a human stronger than Lord Bael, let alone one powerful enough to nearly unify the entire continent. It's impossible. Besides, even if you killed that supposedly strong human, wouldn't the sovereign be the scarier one? Killing the strong human wouldn't exactly solve the problem."
"I must ask you to accept the premise that it is possible."
"Mm."
Paimon moaned "Mm" several times over.
After a few minutes had passed, she let out a sigh and laughed weakly.
"Well then, I suppose a girl will just have to sell herself."
"……."
"Whether that human is a man or a woman, this girl happens to be the Queen of Succubi. One measly human? I'm confident I can make them fall for me. I'll pretend to be as amiable as possible toward that human to earn their trust. Then I'll use every trick in the book to make them fall in love with me."
That was how.
"And if even that doesn't work, well, there's always surrender. Fufu. This girl can't think of any other stratagems."
All of my questions had been answered.