The Grand Dukes were actually delighted when they heard that Paimon would be attending.
No matter how earnestly I apologized on my own, the Grand Dukes would never feel the sincerity behind it.
With Paimon, however, it was a different story. If Paimon — so wildly popular among the Demonkin — personally bowed his head, the Grand Dukes would save face. This was, in short, the domain of politics.
I made every preparation.
Ivar volunteered to attend to Paimon, and Daisy volunteered to attend to me.
Ivar and Daisy may have looked like nothing more than young girls on the surface, but in terms of combat power, they were formidable. One was a puppeteer who could freely command a whopping fifty combat dolls. The other was a Hero armed with Bael's greatsword. You could well call them my trump card. There were no more dependable bodyguards for protecting me.
"Lady Dantalion. I am truly worried."
My diligent Minister of State, however, could not set aside his concerns.
"The Demon Realm is by no means well-disposed toward you at present, Lady Dantalion."
"Why, do you think the Grand Dukes might try to assassinate me?"
"You have already been placed in danger of assassination once before, Lady Dantalion."
Lapis fastened my cloak for me.
"Ivar and Daisy are certainly capable. But should the worst come to the worst..."
"There will be no 'worst case.'"
I gently took Lapis's hand.
Her worry was only natural. When I had nearly been assassinated in the Demon Realm, the person who was wounded in my stead was Lapis herself. Thanks to her shielding me, I had come out unscathed. But this time, I would be entering the Demon Realm without Lapis...
"Every other time I was in danger of assassination, those were all stages I had planned and staged myself. Lapis. I may die someday, but not like this. The Grand Dukes aren't fools, either. Smart enough to be dangerous, but just dumb enough to work with."
"......Recently."
Lapis opened her mouth, then closed it again.
It was exceedingly rare for Lapis, who was precise and composed in all things, to cut herself off mid-sentence. I waited generously for her to continue.
Lapis closed both eyes. She seemed to steady her breathing, then looked straight at me and spoke.
"My mother was a Succubus who sold her body."
"......"
"A Succubus whore and some nameless human. I was the bastard child of the two. Half a month after I was born, my mother abandoned me and fled somewhere, and I grew up drifting from one stable to the next in the village."
Lapis had never once told me stories of her past. I, likewise, had never spoken of my own. We had tacitly agreed that neither of us needed such things.
This was the first time Lapis had ever brought up the old days.
"The tribe considered me a kind of curse and a disgrace. A whore was already despised enough. To make matters worse, I had been born with the blood of a human, which they considered the vilest of all. Untouchable — that was the word for me. There was not a day I went hungry that I didn't eat scraps of food, not a day I was covered that I didn't wear rags."
I had guessed as much.
I didn't know her mother had been a prostitute, but from the moment I heard she was half-human, I had known Lapis must have had a rough childhood.
That was why I had never asked.
I had decided that if Lapis wanted to talk, I would let her, but I would never be the one to pry. We had entered into a particular relationship, and within that relationship, my curiosity was trivial at best.
"One day, a stone thrown by a villager hit my head and I blacked out. When I came to, I had been lying there for days — I couldn't tell how many. My only thought was how unbearably thirsty I was."
Lapis untied her hair tie.
Her hair, which had been tied in two braids, fell loose. She tilted her head slightly to the side. With a finger, she pulled aside the hair that had been covering the nape of her neck. There, a distinct scar remained.
"My eyelids were heavy. Something had glued itself to the back of my neck, sticky and foul. I barely managed to crawl to the stream and drink like an animal. Then I caught my reflection on the surface of the water, and only then did I realize my entire upper body was drenched in blood."
"......"
"That was the first day I craved power."
Lapis gazed at me with her usual expressionless face.
"In the Demon Realm, the only group that judged people regardless of status, by ability alone, was the Kunkuska Trading Company. Of course, there was unspoken discrimination even within the Company, but I didn't care. First and foremost, securing a stable position within the Company was my goal."
"Lord Dantalion," Lapis said.
"It was no coincidence that I was assigned to you, Lord Dantalion. The Kunkuska Trading Company had already written you off as a has-been. Merchants senior to me declined, and declined, and declined again, until the turn finally fell to me—someone at the very bottom."
I let out a wry smile.
Come to think of it, assigning a half-breed girl of Succubus and human descent as a dedicated attendant to a Demon Lord was a tremendous act of disrespect in itself. Normally, Demon Lords were given attendants from species classified as nobility in the Demon Realm—like the Tiger Tribe or the Cat Tribe.
On one side was a has-been Demon Lord ranked seventy-first.
On the other was the untouchable caste of the Demon Realm—a half-breed between a Succubus prostitute and a human.
A perfectly matched pair.
"I accepted the position of dedicated attendant right away. The reason is simple. If Lord Dantalion were to seize power someday, I wanted to be by his side, riding his coattails. It was a calculated approach—a choice driven by my ambition to climb."
Just as I had no ally other than Lapis.
I was the only opportunity for Lapis to rise.
We used each other. We were both fully aware of that fact. In other words, we were not lord and vassal, but partners. That was precisely why I yielded everything to Lapis alone.
"When Lord Dantalion devised Operation Minerva and declared he would drive every human army and every Demon Lord army to ruin, I thought, 'Good.' Because if you seized power in the chaos that followed, I too would be one step closer to power."
"…Ah."
"When Lord Dantalion decided to crush human villages and cities, when you resolved to commit massacre upon massacre, when you even resolved to harm yourself—I nodded every single time. Because I knew it was the quickest road to power."
——And therefore.
"I am Lord Dantalion's accomplice."
We were accomplices in everything we had done.
"Not once have I ever stood by and watched someone die for Lord Dantalion's sake. Nor will I ever kill someone for Lord Dantalion's sake going forward. I, Lapis Lazuli, born of a mother whose face I never knew and a father whose name I never learned, face my life with nothing but my own face and my own name."
Lapis spoke without a shred of falsehood.
The emotions I faintly sensed from her were nothing but pure, genuine sincerity.
"I know that ever since you had Laura whipped, you've been drinking yourself to sleep every night. Hiding wine under your bed won't help. I've also figured out that you pried up the floorboards in the southwest corner of your bedroom and turned the space underneath into a small wine cellar. I dismantled it last night."
"Haha."
I let out a laugh, feeling amused.
"Quitting the drugs was a really good decision. Now please quit the drinking too."
"Alright."
I nodded.
"Please don't try to carry everything on your own shoulders."
"Mm."
"I'll hold on as best I can too. So."
"I will never die."
Lapis pressed her hands together neatly and bowed at the waist.
"Please return safely, Lord Dantalion."
The elderly man spread both arms wide.
"It is the highest honor for Your Highness to grace my humble abode with your presence."
He was one of the Grand Dukes who ruled the Demon Realm — the man who governed the Hell of Poisonous Snakes. A Grand Duke with whom I maintained a rather good relationship. I extended my right hand toward the Grand Duke who was bowing low.
"It's been a long time, Grand Duke. I can't even remember how many years it's been since my last visit."
"Ha ha. Time flows like water — five years have passed in the blink of an eye."
The Grand Duke of Poisonous Snakes shook my hand with both of his in an almost obsequious display of courtesy.
Once before, I had secretly filmed Barbatos in an S&M video and used it to blackmail the other Grand Dukes. At the time, a total of seven Grand Dukes had witnessed the Memoria footage.
All seven of them had been excluded from the recent purge.
There were originally 26 Grand Dukes of the Demon Realm. Eleven had been purged wholesale last time. Now only 15 remained, and seven of them shared with me the kind of secret you'd take to your grave. The Grand Duke of Poisonous Snakes was, of course, among those seven.
"Oh, Your Highness Paimon!"
The Grand Duke of Poisonous Snakes straightened up and greeted her with even more exaggerated pomp than before. He bent so deeply toward Paimon—who had her arm linked with mine—that he practically kissed the floor.
"This humble servant beholds the Master of Masters—the glory of all demons, champion of the weak, and witness to all honors and promises."
The Grand Duke winked with practiced ease.
"Of course, should Your Highness deign to grant this humble servant the opportunity to add but one more title to Your Highness's illustrious name, I would say it is my honor to behold 'the most beautiful of all Demon Lords.'"
"Hehe. Thank you for the warm welcome, Grand Duke."
Paimon smiled faintly. The way her eyes crinkled when she smiled like this was truly beautiful.
"After all, the continent is foreign land. Desolate as it may be, our homeland is this Demon Realm. While we Demon Lords wandered in exile, you Grand Dukes held down the fort, keeping our homes ready for the day the Demonkin could return. On a personal note, I, Paimon, express my gratitude for the devotion you have shown."
"You are too gracious. Too gracious indeed."
Paimon extended her hand. The Grand Duke knelt and pressed his lips to the back of it.
Here, one could glimpse the political posturing that had passed between me, Paimon, and the Grand Duke of Poisonous Snakes.
First, the Grand Duke had greeted not Paimon but me first. This was the Grand Duke half-publicly declaring, "To me, Your Highness Dantalion takes precedence over Your Highness Paimon."
Second, however, the Grand Duke had offered me a brief greeting while giving Paimon a longer one. By greeting me first but paying Paimon more elaborate respects, he was trying to strike some semblance of balance.
Third, Paimon had skillfully returned the lengthy greeting with one equally lengthy. Moreover, by extending her hand, she had orchestrated the kiss. Though I had been the first to receive the greeting, it was Paimon who received the greater courtesy. In the end, from a third party's perspective, the Grand Duke appeared to have welcomed the two of us Demon Lords in perfect equality.
"Your Highness Dantalion. Your Highness Paimon."
That was the gist of it.
At gatherings like these, there were always infinitely more things being exchanged, whispered, confirmed, and acknowledged behind the scenes than what met the eye.
Unlike us Demon Lords, most of whom were unschooled in politics, the Grand Dukes were fundamentally creatures seasoned by political intrigue.
"Please, come to my palace. I shall guide you to where the other Grand Dukes are gathered."
This was the Demon Realm.