Oh, a boss battle notification had popped up — a separate alert window, no less. Not only that, a [WARNING!] message flashed in blazing red, blinking frantically. Was it trying to convey a sense of urgency?
In the dim hollow of a cave — at the passage one had to pass through to reach the Demon Lord's chamber where Dantalion resided — a girl who had once been a duke's daughter and twenty adventurers stood facing each other. Common sense would suggest the girl should be the anxious one. But...
"Ugh, gghh..."
The adventurers gritted their teeth and glared at the girl.
They couldn't hide the tension and anxiety in their eyes. The morbid hobby of collecting skulls, the greatsword that had just emerged from the shadows — these were sapping the adventurers' morale. The girl, on the other hand, was calm and composed. A single girl was outmatching twenty grown men in presence alone.
Perhaps thinking this couldn't go on, Fabian sneered.
"But come on — I can't believe a lady of the duke's household would spread her legs for the Demon Lord. The world's really gone to hell, hasn't it?"
"...?"
Laura furrowed her brow. At that, Fabian snickered.
"That monster that just came out of the shadow over there — that's not yours, is it? Obviously some reward handed down by Dantalion or whoever. Impressive, my lady. How much did you sweet-talk him? You must be quite the performer in bed, to have melted the Demon Lord like that."
"..."
"Well, I'll give you this — you are pretty. Too bad the brain inside that pretty skull has rotted away and reeks of shit."
Was he trying to provoke Laura? There was no enemy more fearsome than a calm soldier. The standard playbook was to heat up your opponent's head and bait them into a misjudgment.
"Was riding the Demon Lord's cock that good? The entire continent is fighting and bleeding against the Demon Lord's army, and you're the only one getting laid? If you had even a shred of conscience, you would have tried to assassinate the Demon Lord. At the very least, you could have bitten off your tongue and killed yourself. You didn't do a damn thing. That just makes you a common whore!"
Fabian scoffed.
"If we're trash, then what does that make you? A traitor to humanity — someone who'd spread her legs for anyone, be it the Demon Lord or whoever, as long as her life was spared... That's right, you're trash below trash. At least we never bent over for the Demon Lord."
"..."
The expression vanished from Laura's face. I could tell she was genuinely furious. Laura was the type who went quiet when she was truly angry.
Provocation wasn't a bad tactic — but he'd picked the wrong target.
She murmured softly.
"…Do you know what the most unbearable existence in this world is?"
"What? What kind of nonsense is that?"
"A pig that barks without knowing its own place."
Laura slowly raised her left hand.
"I was going to let five of you live, but I've changed my mind."
The adventurers hurriedly raised their shields. They had an instinct that an attack was coming. But several seconds passed and nothing happened. Fabian snickered.
"You're done for anyway, woman. Save the empty threats for someone who—"
That was when strange cries echoed from every direction. Dozens, hundreds of footsteps thundered across the cave floor. The characteristic growls of monsters reverberated faintly as they closed in, one step at a time.
"Wh-what!?"
The adventurers looked around frantically. Goblins — countless goblins — were pouring out of the passageways. The sharpest-eyed among them realized they'd walked into a trap and quickly turned to flee.
— *Ker-r-r-r-rk.*
— *Kirrk, kir-r-r.*
But it was too late. Goblins were swarming from the corridors they had already passed through as well. The adventurers instinctively backed away.
"…Wha—huh?"
Like spectators in a coliseum, the goblins began surrounding the adventure party in a ring. One layer, two layers — before long, five or six layers of goblin walls had formed. Breaking through with a party of barely twenty was absolutely impossible.
Strangely enough, the goblins were perfectly calm. They had slaughtered a hundred and fifty adventurers. Every monster gathered here had submitted to the majesty of Laura de Farnese. Not a single beast driven by its instincts rushed in recklessly. At this moment, the girl's military authority was firmly established.
"Damn it."
"Shit, what is this… what the hell is this?"
No human had ever ruled over monsters to this extent before, other than a Demon Lord.
The adventurers could do nothing but curse. Even their curses came out more like screams. One man was so frozen in terror that he dropped his weapon entirely.
"Hah."
A laugh was heard.
"Heh heh, kuh kuh..."
Beyond the wall of monsters, Laura was laughing. It was not the warm, gentle laugh she usually wore. It was the laugh warriors wore on the battlefield when they intended to humiliate and degrade their opponents. I thought there was something strangely familiar about it.
"So this girl's life ends here? The curtain falls already?"
Laura's expression twisted. In an instant, all trace of laughter evaporated and her face contorted like that of a demon.
"Don't make me laugh, trash! You think this girl—this girl who serves as Deputy Commander to the Demon Lord Dantalion—will be hunted down by the likes of you?!"
She unleashed a roar startlingly loud for her small frame. The adventurers flinched at the sheer force of it.
"You are not the hunters here. Ah, perhaps at another Demon Lord's Castle that might have been the case, but not here. Never here! This place was built as a hunting ground precisely to slaughter trash like you! You really think this girl would be hunted by the likes of garbage?!"
Laura leveled her blade.
"I will engrave into your very bones just how feeble you are. Blind greed drove you to point your spears at me, adventurers—you will die here without even leaving last words."
One adventurer's knees gave out and he crumpled to the ground. No—he had knelt deliberately.
"P-please, please spare us! Forgive us!"
"You—!? Get up, get on your feet right now!"
Fabian shouted in panic. But Fabian was only a temporary leader at best. Exercising control in a situation like this was beyond him. If anything, once one man knelt, the other adventurers began dropping to the ground in droves.
"Please, please forgive us!"
"We—our greed... our greed drove us mad!"
They threw down every weapon they had. Shields, spears—all clattering to the ground with a deafening clamor of steel.
The party's morale had completely collapsed. In the end, only three people were left standing upright in the cave: Fabian, Jeremy, and me.
"Now we're finally on the same level."
Laura smiled with satisfaction. She narrowed her eyes and looked at Fabian.
"There's still a bastard who hasn't grasped his own place."
"......"
Fabian slowly knelt down. His face was twisted with humiliation.
Now the only ones still standing on two feet were Jeremy and me. The adventurers glanced over at us, begging for forgiveness. Their eyes were fiercely reproaching us. What are you doing not kneeling already! Are you going to kill us all!
They were terrified that I might provoke Laura's anger on their behalf.
"Heh."
A chuckle escaped me. Laura really was something.
I had thought that despite her talent, she might still be inexperienced in these kinds of psychological games — but apparently not. As expected, my eye for people was lacking. A lion was a lion even when young. That iron-willed Laura de Farnese, the great woman who had held her chin high even before a Hero — there was no way she couldn't dominate a mere D-rank adventuring party.
I leisurely walked forward. Straight ahead. A beeline toward Laura.
"T-that lunatic!"
"You son of a bitch, what are you doing!"
Shocked cries erupted from behind me.
But just like the Red Sea parting for Moses, the goblins slowly split to either side — and the shock turned to confusion. Huh? Huh? The adventurers voiced their bewilderment in hollow tones. I stopped in front of Laura.
Laura looked up at me with a beaming smile. Her eyes sparkled. She looked like a pet dog hoping for praise. Without thinking, I stroked her bangs.
"You did well, Laura."
"Mm. It was nothing."
Laura spoke demurely. Well, only her tone was demure — her voice was practically oozing sincerity, screaming "I did great, didn't I! I did great, right!?" In this regard, Laura was unmistakably a kid. Perhaps she saw me less as a sovereign and more as a kind of father figure.
"It's my lord who had it hard. Matching the adventurers' level must have been exhausting."
"Ahhh, it was nothing on my end either. Wasn't it surprisingly fun?"
It felt just like being an adventurer player back when I was still human, and my heart was racing. The beta test was well worth it.
"By the way, Laura, I had no idea you could pull off expressions like that when I'm not around. You're even skilled at psychological warfare. I was genuinely surprised. I'd say you're a match for Barbatos."
"Hehe, you flatter me. I simply learned by watching my lord."
We shared a chuckle together.
"My, my. Someone overhearing that would get the wrong idea. I'm the most honest and upright person there is — I don't have any hobby like collecting skulls."
"In the first place, my lord could stand to be a bit more Demon Lord-like. This is a hobby with practical benefits. Imagine thousands of skulls stacked up in front of the Demon Lord's Castle. Wouldn't that be effective at demoralizing the enemy?"
"Demoralizing them, you say. Come to think of it, there is that angle too…"
I nodded in agreement. Behind us, the adventurers were staring blankly at the scene.
"Oh, right, my lord. I captured the female adventurers separately and had them tied up."
"Hm? Why did you go through that trouble?"
"It's a courtesy so you can use them freely whenever you feel the urge."
"Eugh," I grimaced, furrowing my brow.
"Sex slaves? Why would I need that when I have you?"
"Because you're unbearable to deal with alone, my lord, who's in heat all year round."
Laura flicked me on the forehead.
"I was hoping Lapis would take over a little, but no such luck — not a word from her even after months. It's plain as day what you'll be doing starting tomorrow. You'll claim you've built up fatigue from the trip in Frank and whatnot, and then you'll have your way with me until I'm sick of it, won't you?"
"……"
She was definitely using mind-reading.
The moment we arrived in Frank, I'd been running around trying to balance Laura's authority with the village's traditions. Honestly, I'd worked too hard. My plan was to defeat this adventurer group and then cling to Laura like, "See? I saved your face! I demand a reward!" …But now that was up in the air.
Laura wrinkled her nose.
"You'd probably say something like, 'The village matter was resolved thanks to me, so repay me with your body.' How predictable."
"Ghk...!"
She'd noticed everything! This was exactly why geniuses were so infuriating!
This was bad. How attractive could female adventurers possibly be? They were the tough, rugged sort who spent their days rolling around in dungeons like men—not exactly a match for Laura's radiant beauty. I quickly launched into my defense.
"Laura, I'm not some beast driven by carnal hunger. I'm excited because the one I'm with is you. I have my pride as a man. I wouldn't want to be with anyone but you."
"Oh? It pleases me to hear my lord say so. But for someone who was supposedly courting me so sweetly, you sure seemed to have quite the merry time in Frank."
Laura curled the corner of her lips upward.
"My lord, I hear you had quite a bit of fun at the opera house."
"Jeremy!"
I shouted at Jeremy, who was standing right beside me. When on earth had he ratted me out!
Jeremy shrugged with an innocent look on his face.
"Oh my. I don't know anything about that?"
"If not you, then who else here would even know about that?!"
"Well now. Perhaps Dantalion's own conscience whispered it to him? That is, if Dantalion even still has a conscience."
Jeremy cackled with laughter. Damn it, there wasn't a single trustworthy subordinate in this world.
Laura spoke.
"So in the end, my lord figures that as long as a woman's pretty enough, he can just grab whoever he wants and have his way with her. Don't worry. I have an eye for these things as well. I only spared the particularly attractive female adventurers, so my lord's lower half should be more than satisfied."
"That's... not what I meant..."
"There's no need to make any more excuses. I understand everything."
Laura patted my back.
She was wearing a smile. The kind of smile a middle-aged man would wear. And there I was, being comforted about my sex life by a girl who wasn't even eighteen yet……
"W-what……!"
That was when a voice came from the side where the adventurers were kneeling.
"Stop laughing! What the hell are you……!"
It was Fabian. He gripped his shield and sword tightly and rose to his feet. His eyes were burning with fury.
"My lord? Dantalion? ……You—you're the Demon Lord Dantalion!"
"Oh. That's exactly right, Mr. Fabian."
I grinned and clapped my hands together.
"I am the former seventy-first ranked officer of the Demon Lord's Army. The Otherworldly Demon Lord. Supreme Strategist of the Crescent Alliance Army and an executive of the Plains Faction. Or, as a handful of Demon Lords liked to call me by nickname: 'the Limp,' 'the Ravisher,' 'Bruno's Butcher.' I am the Demon Lord Dantalion."
The adventurers were staring at me with blank, stupefied expressions.
"Man. You all really delivered. I mean, five thousand gold isn't exactly pocket change, but—how did you manage to move exactly as I predicted? Thank you. The meal was delicious. Thanks to you, all that resentment I built up from what happened in Franque has been wiped clean!"
I burst into loud laughter. No, I really was genuinely grateful. All the stress that had piled up thanks to Queen Henrietta was released at once.
Maybe they caught my laughter, because Laura and Jeremy started laughing too. The three of us pointed at each other and laughed even harder. The adventurers just watched us with stares, as if gazing upon some incomprehensible spectacle.
"Hm. Since you've all been so devoted to us, we really ought to return the favor. Laura, I'll agree to taking the female adventurers as sex slaves. But in exchange, would you leave their fate in my hands?"
"Hmm."
Even though I was the lord, she had been the one who contributed the most to this battle. It was only natural to show her respect. Laura thought it over for a moment, then nodded.
"Fine. They deserve a horrific punishment for what they did to that girl and to my lord, but since my lord puts it that way, I'll accept it."
"Oh, thank you."
I spread both arms toward the adventurers.
"Now then, everyone. You'd like to survive, wouldn't you? You're the sort of people who kill for money and go around playing thug, but the desire to live is no different whether you're a noble or a king. I understand your desires perfectly."
And so, I said.
"I'll give you all an opportunity."
"An opportunity?"
"Yes. An opportunity to escape this place alive. We've been traveling together for a few hours now, haven't we? Besides, I do have a weakness for human sentiment."
I replied to Fabian's question. A nervous hope bloomed in the eyes of the adventurers. Some were already bowing their heads to the ground—Thank you! Thank you!
Don't get ahead of yourselves. I still had more to say.
"You'll have to kill each other."
"Wh…what?"
"A duel. Haven't you heard of gladiatorial combat? Kill each other until only one remains. As for the last human standing, I will absolutely not lay a finger on them. No matter what."
I said with a thin smile.
"I'm not lying. In fact, I've never told a lie in my entire life. I stake my name on this promise. Now, begin."
Truly, I was generous.