The Demon Lords murmured among themselves. A woman whose voice had a whiny edge openly grumbled her discontent. Three hundred years was an outrageous amount, she said. Amid the commotion, Paimon sat with her eyes closed in silence, wearing the posture of someone who had already said everything she intended to say.
She insisted on using formal language to a lowly Demon Lord like me, and I could feel how deeply she valued propriety. She may have thought she was being rather cool about it, but my impression was that she was just insufferable.
"Quiet. Silence."
Marbas, the fifth-ranked Demon Lord, waved his hand and quelled the uproar. The ballroom fell quiet.
"Paimon. Have you finished what you had to say?"
"Yes, this girl has nothing further to add."
"Then we shall hear the rebuttal from Dantalion's side. Dantalion has the right to question Paimon, and Paimon has the right to answer."
Good. I drew a breath.
My turn was approaching. Know yourself and know your enemy, and you need never fear a hundred battles — so before entering the debate, I checked my status. Because of the unknown passive skills held by the Demon Lords here, my stats had plummeted significantly.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
True Name: Dantalion Race: Demon Lord Affiliation: Dantalion Demon Lord Army
Alignment: Neutral (-10)
Level: 4 Infamy: 253
Class: Dungeon Operator (F), Demon Lord (F)
Command: 15/15 Might: 5/5 Intelligence: 20(-5)/25
Politics: 13/15 Charisma: 5(-5)/10 Technique: 4/10
*Title: You have no title.
*Abilities: Tactics (F), Marksmanship (F), Mining (F)
*Skills: Acting
[Achievements: 0]
[Subordinates: 42/50]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Pathetic stats. Still, Lapis's silent encouragement put me at ease. Among the countless emotions I could feel from her even now, there was one small but distinct thread of worry directed at me. And besides — things had been far worse when the Walsen Village adventure party had invaded!
Back then, my stats — already at rock bottom — had been so bad they would have punched through the earth's crust to draw groundwater. I had just been dropped into this world, so I'd had to gather every scrap of information on my own, from start to finish. I'd scraped by on survival while putting on an act I was barely familiar with.
Compared to then, how was I now?
I fully understood the situation I was in, and I knew exactly who my opponent was. Paimon was one of the bosses I had faced dozens, even hundreds of times while playing the game.
I knew exactly how she would answer every possible question. It was written all over her face.
"Dantalion, you may question."
Marbas spoke.
I bowed my head to him, then with a faint smile I addressed the room.
"First, I must state that I am in a terribly difficult position. The first reason is that Her Highness Paimon, who is present here, is a far more noble and powerful being than someone like me."
Somewhere a snort of derision was heard. It was probably Barbatos, the eighth-ranked, who had been clashing with Paimon since the early stages of the assembly. I paid it no mind and continued.
"The second reason is that I never realized Andromalius was someone worthy of so much of Her Highness Paimon's concern. I had truly and firmly believed there was an unbridgeable gap between Her Highness Paimon's stature and Andromalius's character. But now Her Highness Paimon leaps over that gap to defend none other than Andromalius — the most wretched of us all, someone who is hardly even fit to be called a comrade among our seventy-two fellows… I cannot help but be bewildered by Her Highness Paimon's actions."
Paimon's expression turned cold. The corners of her mouth still turned upward, but her eyes were icy. Having spent time around Lapis — the Demon Realm's greatest master of the poker face — an expression like this was child's play to me. She knew, and everyone here knew, that I had just about directly insulted her reputation.
"…This girl has clearly stated that point. A Demon Lord deserves respect for the reason alone that she is a Demon Lord."
"Is that so?"
I widened my eyes in exaggerated surprise.
"Truly? Lady Paimon, you don't actually believe that, do you?"
"Yes, I do. Did you think this girl was making an idle boast?"
"I apologize. But I have not the slightest intention of insulting Lady Paimon. Quite the opposite — I am surprised precisely because I believe Lady Paimon would never make such a statement without cause."
I bowed at a sixty-degree angle.
"Now then. With the right I have been given, I dare to pose a question to Lady Paimon. Lady Paimon, what is a Demon Lord? The question may have been a bit vague. Let me rephrase. In the Demon Realm, what is the purpose of our existence as Demon Lords?"
"Are you ignoring me? Obviously, it is to lead and unite the Demonkin and guide them to the surface world."
"An excellent answer. Ignore you? Heaven forbid. If only Lady Paimon would deign to answer a few more questions, I would be most grateful."
I held out both palms and gave a warm smile.
"Lady Paimon, a Demon Lord must lead and unite the Demonkin and guide them to the surface world. Then if one neither leads nor unites the Demonkin, nor guides them to the surface world, that person would be lacking in qualifications as a Demon Lord, correct?"
"That is correct."
"In fact, I think exactly the same way."
That was a lie. What did I care about the duties of a Demon Lord? As long as I survived, that was enough. But lying didn't cost anything.
"In truth, the purpose of our existence as Demon Lords in the Demon Realm is nothing other than that. Forgive the comparison, but among the Grand Dukes who govern the hells of the Demon Realm, there are in fact many Demon Lords with weaker influence than them. I am a prime example. And yet we are treated as sovereigns ranked above Dukes and Grand Dukes. Why is that? Everyone, it is exactly as Her Highness Paimon has said."
I turned my head to look around the room.
"In the Demon Realm, where the law is survival of the fittest and selfishness reigns supreme, we Demon Lords alone are truly capable of caring for others and leading others. Only we can make the Demonkin willingly bow their heads. No matter how many legions a Grand Duke of Hell commands, who among them would swear genuine loyalty? In this cesspit of beings who care only for themselves, the Demon Lord shines as the sole beacon of hope for the Demonkin."
An absolute symbol.
Even if the Demonkin had realistically been fighting a bloody war among themselves for thousands of years, the Demon Lord of Dungeon Attack was the living proof that the possibility of unity — of one day becoming one — existed.
"Now then. There is a Demon Lord here who does neither. He neither unites the Demonkin nor guides them. He simply exploits hundreds of Goblins as a money-making tool. Even more astonishing, he does not even remain in the Human Realm! He spends his days in luxury in the Demon Realm for his own amusement and pleasure. Naturally, the money for that luxury comes from the blood and sweat of the Goblins. I ask you all—"
He had betrayed that symbol of hope.
"Is this man truly a Demon Lord?"
No one answered. I paused for a brief moment, then spoke again.
"Can this man truly be called our comrade?"
The ballroom was utterly silent. I shifted my entire demeanor — contrary to all the gestures and motions I had been using until now — to something deeply grave and measured.
"Everyone, I would dare to rebuke you all. The reason we, who are lesser than even a single Grand Duke, receive the most exalted treatment is because we are Demon Lords. And yet a man has appeared who has abandoned being a Demon Lord. What reason is there to let him be? What reason is there to tolerate him?"
"Because—"
Perhaps she sensed she was losing momentum. Paimon cut in.
"Because no matter how lowly, there are only seventy-two in the entire world—"
"Oh, Her Highness Paimon. Seventy-two Demon Lords for whose sake, exactly?"
I fixed her with a stare.
"When did Demon Lords become Demon Lords for the sake of other Demon Lords? When did they stop caring for the Demonkin and start building their own little hierarchy?"
"……."
"We are lonely. Yes. We cannot clearly distinguish between self and others. And so the feeling of being 'together' is equally difficult for us. To us, 'self' and 'other' are closer to mere lumps of matter. Fine. We are lonely. But is that reason enough to unconditionally keep a Demon Lord alive just to soothe our loneliness?"
She could not answer.
Paimon.
The moment you answered my first question, you were finished. You should never have submitted an answer that was straight out of a textbook — that the duty of a Demon Lord is to lead the Demonkin. You should have brazenly smeared your face in shamelessness and answered that there is no such thing as a Demon Lord's duty.
"That is selfishness! Her Highness Paimon has committed an obvious contradiction. You spoke as though you were defending Andromalius and all of us. But in essence, isn't it nothing more than selfishness to avoid your own loneliness?"
It was your inability to be that brazen that cost you the game.
"Andromalius has committed two great sins."
I raised my voice and shouted as though venting my anguish.
First, he violated the duty of a Demon Lord. Having lost that mandate, he no longer holds the right to reign above all Demonkin. Therefore, he is not a Demon Lord.
Second, he significantly damaged the Demonkin's expectations and hopes for all Demon Lords. Even if we appeal to the Demonkin in the future for the greater cause, some of them will remember Andromalius and doubt us. If that is not a harm to all Demon Lords, then what is?
"Someone should have stopped Andromalius. But for hundreds of years, no one did. What a disgrace. The Demon Lords themselves were devaluing the worth of Demon Lords! And to make matters worse, the one ranked ninth among us stands here defending selfishness — the exact opposite of what a Demon Lord should represent!"
"…Hk."
"I demand this of the assembly. Demon Lord Andromalius has not only violated the mandate of the Demon Lord title in principle but has tarnished it in reality. Only death is a fitting punishment for him. Furthermore, I demand that Demon Lord Paimon, who should have upheld her own dignity as a high-ranking Demon Lord, be compelled to issue an official public apology to every citizen of Niflheim."
By now Paimon could no longer even maintain the smile on her lips. She covered her mouth with her fan and glared at me with furious intensity.
As our eyes clashed, the surrounding crowd remained silent. Not a quiet silence, but a silence brimming with excitement. Both sides were prosecuting each other for their sins, and no matter how it turned out, the spectacle could not have been more entertaining for the onlookers.
At that moment, Barbatos, ranked eighth, burst into laughter and clapped her hands.
"Kyahaha! The kid's right, that brat is right! That slut always goes around blabbering about how Demon Lords should have dignity and all that garbage."
I turned my head. I laid eyes on Barbatos, whom I had only ever heard before. Just as in the game, Barbatos was a small-statured girl. She wore a dress that was strikingly red and laden with frills, looking exactly like a little lady from a doll tea party.
"If she goes and denies everything she's said her whole life right here, her reputation will only get worse, and then she'll definitely have to apologize to those Demonkin grubs. Kyururuk, now that's delicious!"
"Barbatos."
Marbas, who was serving as moderator, shot her a glare.
"Outsiders must not join the questioning without permission."
"Ha, the questioning's already over. Is there anything more to see? Why don't you run off to the city, spread that plump ass of yours on the ground, and grovel your apology? Who knows? Maybe some sex-starved vagrants will personally hammer their meat into you to absolve your sins!"
"Barbatos!"
Marbas's voice turned sharp. Barbatos snorted and pressed her thin lips together. It was an excessively nasty taunt, but Paimon never once looked in Barbatos's direction. She kept her eyes locked on me.
"……."
I refused to back down and met her gaze head-on. It had come down to a choice: would I be locked away for three hundred years in a place I had never even heard of, or would she trample her own authority to apologize to the citizens? I had no intention of losing a battle of wills.
They struck first. You picked a fight with me when I was minding my own business. If you hadn't cornered me like this in a public venue, holding a full-blown hearing, I would never have taken the risk of opposing someone as powerful as you.
'So back down.'
You were just a boss I cut down more than twelve times in the game.
I'm a player who has killed not just you, but every single Demon Lord in this room, you human-loving bottom-feeder of a Demon Lord.