The temple stood atop a cliff.
Dark blue waves crashed against the rock face and shattered into spray. Above the reach of even the most outstretched arms of the tide, rows of pure white marble pillars stood in formation. They had crumbled in a wretched state.
The roof had half collapsed. Some pillars were severed clean at the waist. Where these ruins had failed to endure the passage of time and lost their excess volume, the wind carried the scent of the sea and gently held it aloft. In this way, half the temple lay exposed to the sunlight, while the other half surrendered to the blue shadows.
The people gathered here were much the same. Submerged in light and shade alike, they gazed toward the empty center of the temple floor, waiting for a voice to fill that hollow space.
"At last, the time has come."
As if answering what the people anticipated — Demon Lord Paimon parted her lips. The sea's light and the sea's shadow draped softly over this woman.
"The ten nations of the Human Realm have fractured. The Demon Lord's armies of the Demon Realm have splintered apart. The ghosts that have haunted the plains, the mountain ranges, and the valleys until now have perished. For the glory of humanity. For the prosperity of the Demonkin. Those false pretexts are finally breathing their last."
Between Paimon's measured words, the sound of waves murmured faintly. Even now, the surging tide below battered the cliff without respite.
"Now. The Mandate of Heaven has been bestowed upon us."
Yet Paimon's voice held the power to reduce those waves to nothing more than a peaceful variation.
"That mandate commands us to bring a gruesome end to those false pretexts. That mandate commands us to destroy every crown and every throne in this world. That mandate —"
With each word Paimon added, the temple seemed to travel back in time, returning to the magnificent form it had once held.
"That mandate commands us to break the chains of those who suffer for no reason other than being born commoners. It commands us never to accept the world's injustices and absurdities simply because they have always existed, and to shatter them for no other reason than that they must not exist. Comrades. We need no other reason than this."
The people nodded in silent agreement.
"There are countless reasons why justice should not exist. It is too difficult. It is impossible. We can pile on thousands of reasons and tens of thousands of excuses to send justice plummeting ever downward. On the other hand, there is only a single reason why justice must exist."
Paimon raised her glass forward.
"Because it is right!"
Dozens of people raised their glasses in response.
"People are sometimes repulsive. Crowds are sometimes evil. Therefore, we do not act for the sake of people, nor for the sake of crowds. Likewise, we do not act merely because we despise the nobility. The reason we act is singular —"
"Because it is right!"
Someone shouted. Then, one after another, people began to speak.
"Because it is right!"
Paimon nodded. As though any further words were unnecessary, she brought the glass to her lips. Wine slipped through the transparent glass and trickled into the gaps between her lips. One thin stream of wine went astray and ran down Paimon's pale jawline.
Paimon hurled the glass to the floor.
"For the revolution!"
Immediately afterward, dozens of glasses were hurled onto the marble floor. They shattered into tens or hundreds of brilliant fragments. The scent of the sea, the stench of life rotting away, lingered over the shards for a moment, drifting.
Construction of the dungeon proceeded following Lapis's advice.
Just as she had suggested, I summoned a swarm of builders and asked them to present their budget proposals — and good lord. The construction cost, initially quoted at twenty million gold, had shrunk to a mere fourteen million gold. That was a reduction of a full six million gold.
The representative dwarf of the Red Marble Construction Company, who had been the first to quote twenty million gold, was so flustered he couldn't meet my gaze. Of course, that didn't mean I was about to let him off without a jab.
"Listen here, Director. In all my years, I've been through all manner of things, but this is a first — earning six million gold in just three days. I owe it all to you, Director."
"…O-Our construction firm can build Your Majesty's residence for a total of thirteen million five hundred thousand gold!"
The dwarf answered, drenched in sweat. I smiled with satisfaction.
"What can I say? People are supposed to be selfish — that's human nature. And in that regard, you're a truly admirable man, Director Dwarf. A fine individual of remarkable character. Not many people in this world get praised for their character by the likes of me, so you should be proud."
"P-Please… please have mercy."
"Mercy? What more mercy could there be? I understand you. Hahahaha."
I clapped a hand on his shoulder. By now, beads of sweat were trickling from his forehead all the way down to his shaggy beard.
A marathon discussion continued for the entire day. They were building a ten-story underground dungeon. How should the design look? How should the corridors be arranged?
Above all, they accepted my requirements with fresh enthusiasm. The dungeon was to be built like a kind of maze. And beyond the maze's thick walls, a demonkin village was to be constructed. Even for goblins and dwarves who had been in the construction business for thousands of years, this was a novel undertaking.
As the discussion went on, opinions naturally split into two camps. The goblin faction and the dwarf faction.
A goblin was foaming at the mouth, jabbing his finger furiously.
"Kerrk! You stupid dirt-diving bastards! Why can't you understand something this simple! If you don't make the central corridor tall enough, the big-bodied Demonkin won't be able to move through it!"
"Hmph, just like those green moles—only able to think about one thing at a time."
The dwarf snorted so hard that his white beard quivered.
"Build the ceiling that high and the structural integrity tanks. It won't even last a thousand years before the Demon Lord's Castle comes crashing down."
"That's because your people's construction skills are garbage. Kerk, just reinforce the floors with orichalcum and you're done."
"Ha! What a bunch of turnip-brained simpletons. Reinforce the floors with orichalcum? You can't even imagine how many times the budget would blow up. Thirty million gold wouldn't be enough, let alone twenty million."
"There's no need to smelt it anyway! Kerrk, just embed the raw ore whole! You lot always lack imagination. This is the Demon Lord's Castle—mana is overflowing everywhere! The structural strength is on a completely different level from anywhere else."
I watched the two races duke it out while holding back a yawn.
I had no idea what orichalcum was or what any of that talk meant, but it was clearly an extremely important and sensitive topic for construction professionals. As the old saying went, no issue matters more to the experts than the issue that amuses the layman.
"Lapis. Why are they going at each other like that?"
I asked quietly. Lapis was standing at attention beside me. She attended as my personal secretary and the project's chief supervisor.
Lapis replied in a similarly low voice.
"Goblins and dwarves have always had a poor opinion of each other. Their professional domains in the Demon Realm overlap quite a bit, you see. It's the same as how succubuses and nymphs can't stand one another."
"Hmm? What do nymphs mainly do in the Demon Realm?"
"Prostitution, of course."
Ah, so that's how it was. Interesting—apparently, different races tended to specialize in different occupations. Sensing my curiosity, Lapis elaborated.
"Even among sex workers, there's a hierarchy. The standards vary slightly from one Hell to the next, but roughly speaking, they're divided into third-tier, second-tier, and first-tier. Third-tier workers provide only physical satisfaction to their clients. First-tier workers, on the other hand, accompany their clients to social events like balls. They can be called the flowers of the feast."
"Oh?"
"The succubus race mainly produces third-tier and second-tier workers. The majority of first-tier workers come from the nymph race. And so, despite both being in the same profession, they endlessly insult and look down on each other."
Contempt and jealousy existed everywhere.
I felt cynical, so I let the word slip out of my mouth.
"Foolish."
"Yes. Utterly irrational."
"Hmm. There are those who can only preserve their identity by looking down on others, I suppose."
The two of us turned our gaze toward the commotion. The goblins and dwarves were now shouting at each other almost violently enough to grab one another by the collar. There had to be something beyond mere professional pride mixed in there.
I glanced at Lapis and smiled.
"So that's why you deliberately invited the goblins and dwarves, Lapis."
"Pardon?"
"When unnecessary pride gets tangled up, people become irrational. If the construction firms united and jacked up their prices, I'd have no choice but to spend twenty million gold. If I'd only called the goblin clans or only the dwarf clans, things would probably have played out similarly."
But Lapis had deliberately summoned two rival races. Our goblins can build far better than those guys! Our dwarves can build more efficiently than those guys!... Each firm ended up staking not just profit but their very pride on the competition.
I smiled with satisfaction.
"Racial pride, perhaps? Anyway, when collective pride gets involved, people are willing to take a loss just to win. That's a brilliant approach, Lapis. I'll give you a bonus later."
"...That's fascinating."
Lapis's azure eyes, the color of lapis lazuli, stared straight at me.
"Hm?"
"You, Lord Dantalion, are completely ignorant when it comes to commerce. As far as I'm aware, you're also far from exceptional in military strategy. And yet, whether it's commerce or military affairs, the moment scheming enters the picture, you display a sharpness of insight as if you've become an entirely different person."
I wasn't sure what to make of it, but it sounded like a compliment regardless.
"As I thought, Lord Dantalion needs a proper support staff. When capable specialists gather under your command, they will perform a magnificent opera under your direction."
"Ah. Actually, I was thinking of getting out for a bit once I wrap up this job."
Dungeon construction isn't something that wraps up in a day or two. I needed to get it started at the very least. After that, I planned to roam the continent in search of talent. I wanted to recruit roughly four people, if things went well.
Well, I also had a request from Paimon to take care of. Two birds with one stone.
The explosive debate between the Goblins and dwarves took a full six hours before it finally came to a close.
In the middle of it, the races actually started going at each other, but I couldn't be bothered to stop them. Instead, Lapis and I traded glasses of wine and watched the brawl with great interest. I bet five gold that the Goblins would win, while Lapis bet five gold on the dwarves. As it turned out, the dwarves won. It was the moment I swore to never make a wager with Lapis again.
"Your Highness. We shall present Your Highness's residence for 17 million gold."
"I will build a Demon Lord's Castle more magnificent than any other in the world for 12 million gold."
The budget proposals broadly split into two camps.
The first: spend big and build wide corridors. The majority of Goblins supported this option. Large monsters could move around easily, and higher ceilings meant better living conditions inside the dungeon.
The second: save as much money as possible. The dwarves backed this plan. Only the underground floors where large monsters would reside would be spacious; everything else would be built with low ceilings.
With both proposals laid out before me—
"My Demon Lord's Castle will be built with ten floors. I shall assign each floor to a different firm."
I embraced both races.
This, too, was in line with Lapis's advice. If you funnel all the work to one firm, competition disappears. The construction firms gathered here were all top-tier operators in the Demon Realm regardless. There was no risk of shoddy design. The real question was how much effort and dedication they would pour into the work.
Lapis would serve as the overall project manager. The Kunkuska Trading Company would broker the procurement of construction materials and the mobilization of construction labor. With Lapis—and behind her, the legendary merchant of the Demon Realm, Ivar Lodbrok—supervising the entire process, it would be difficult for anyone to pull any funny business.
"Y-Yes. That is a wise judgment."
The Goblins and dwarves wore disgusted expressions but submitted. They could no longer skim off the top, but even they had to admit the outcome was reasonable. Dungeon construction was a massive undertaking in its own right—one that promised enormous profit.
And so, the foundation for dungeon construction was laid. I temporarily entrusted the domain's affairs to Parsi and the Demon Lord's Castle matters to Lapis and Laura, then set off.
My destination: the Frank Empire. Where Paimon's Liberation Alliance awaited me.
——At the same time, it was the country where the Hero from Dungeon Attack lived.