The sound of a quill pen scraping across paper rang softly through the office.
I plunged the pen boldly into the inkwell and wrote in thick, dark strokes. The pen tip raced across the page with impressive force. The document was, naturally, written in languages I had never studied—Habsburg and Old Imperial. The meaning came to me effortlessly, of course. Reading and even writing, I handled both of this world's languages with complete fluency. Had I been reborn not as a Demon Lord but as a human, I might have made quite the diplomat.
"The Lord and the Legion Commander believe that Paimon is plotting a stratagem of borrowing a blade to kill."
"Yes, that is correct."
I answered while carefully reviewing the documents.
"At first glance, Paimon's scheme appears plausible, but there are certain unsatisfying loose ends."
"Oh?"
"The Sixth Legion faces the human forces on the Habsburg front. Meanwhile, the Mountain Faction's First Legion contends with the armies of the Teuton Kingdom and the Batavia Republic. Even if Paimon were to pull off a stratagem of borrowing a blade, it would weaken the Habsburg Imperial Army at best—there is no particular way it would diminish the military strength of Teuton or Batavia."
Laura was saying that the enemy forces the First Legion needed to oppose would remain fully intact. Then what exactly was the borrowed-blade assassination for?
"Hmm. Could it simply be that they aim to weaken our Sixth Legion's combat power?"
"That alone doesn't explain why the First Legion's posture has been excessively careless."
Laura declared firmly.
"They haven't even deployed yet. Any strategist worth their salt would try to conceal their scheme. If Commander Paimon's sole objective were to weaken the Sixth Legion, he is acting far too overtly. At the very least, the First Legion could have marched into the Black Mountains and put on a show of combat—to claim they were fighting the human army as well, that they weren't acting selfishly, and secure justification that way."
Paimon had not moved at all. In Demonkin society these days, Paimon and the Mountain Faction were being fiercely criticized—labeled as those who behaved selfishly while their kin bled and fought.
"Why deliberately invite such criticism? Perhaps Paimon's true intentions lie elsewhere. He has remained motionless until now for some particular reason… that is the correct way to read the situation."
"Interesting."
I kept my gaze fixed on the documents while continuing to write. It was a formal document appointing Brother Beleth and Brother Zepar as barons under a border-count.
With this, in proper Imperial official format, one count and two barons had been brought into existence. I had even extracted written oaths from the village heads—pledges to uphold and legitimize Demon Lord Beleth and Demon Lord Zepar as rightful lords.
"Then allow me to ask. What do you believe Paimon's true intention is?"
"There is an answer that resolves things quite succinctly. Just as the Demon Lord army has its Plains Faction and Mountain Faction, so too does the Habsburg Empire have its own internal groups competing against one another. My lord pointed this out in the previous meeting. Both the Demon Lord army and the human armies harbor prejudice toward each other. In any massive organization, various interests are bound to conflict, and numerous factions stand opposed to each other…."
I set down the quill pen.
Paperwork was quite interesting. I found that desk work suited my temperament. All I was doing was fitting phrases to a format, stringing words together according to convention, yet I felt a certain swell of satisfaction. Strangely, it was a pleasure not unlike deceiving people. In the sense that you were adorning something far more lavishly than its true state, paperwork was a form of lying too, wasn't it? If I had been born human in this world, I probably would have ended up some middling middle-manager shuffling papers… what a pity. Being a Demon Lord was fitting for a depraved lolicon at best — it never had any real compatibility with my perfectly pure personality.
"Laura. Do you like whisky?"
"Anything my lord gives me, I will drink."
I retrieved a bottle of whisky and a pair of glass tumblers from the drawer. Items I had liberally helped myself to from Count von Rosenberg's cellar. The old count had been a connoisseur — his cellar was packed with rare liquors stacked neatly in place of any treasure. Barbatos, whose eyes had nearly spun out of his head at the sight of that remarkable collection, had claimed most of it, but I had managed to secure about four bottles for myself. I handed a glass to Laura and poured with a soft gurgle.
"Cheers."
"To Dantalion."
*Ting* — the glass tumblers rang together pleasantly. The sharp fragrance of whisky seeped through my nostrils, still clinging with the scent of ink. I moistened my tongue with the liquor. A fleeting illusion washed over me that my skull itself was being refreshed.
"The de Farneses are a ducal family of the Kingdom of Sardinia. Having grown up there, you would no doubt know in detail what internal situation the Habsburg Empire finds itself in, wouldn't you, Laura?"
"That's right. I never had much interest in politics, but simply by being around my family, one could easily pick up enough to understand the continental situation."
Thanks to that, she had picked up on something the Demon Lords had failed to notice — a nagging irregularity.
For some reason, I felt cheerful. I could hear it in the rise of my voice. By now I had grown somewhat accustomed to the symptoms of this bipolarity — how quickly my mood swung up and down. There were no demi-humans here who could read my emotions. That meant this good feeling was entirely my own. In that case, it wasn't bad at all….
Laura took a sip of whisky and spoke.
"The Habsburg Empire is currently walking the path of decline. Anyone would agree with that. But even in decline, an empire is still an empire — and three claimants to the throne are fiercely battling over the seat of the absolute monarch."
The Crown Prince and first prince, born of the empress. The second prince, the second-born son. And finally, the third princess — born of a concubine — the third imperial child. The Emperor had originally sired four sons and three daughters, but all save these three were dead. Officially, the deaths were attributed to epidemics and accidents, but few people readily believed that. Most of the educated class was convinced the imperial siblings had been casualties of political warfare.
That was the truth, too.
In the game, there was a route that made the Third Princess Elisabeth the heroine. Among gamers, this scenario was known as the so-called "true heroine route" — the protagonist became both the Hero and the lover of the Third Princess, reigning supreme over the continent. And somewhere toward the latter half of that scenario, the Third Princess Elisabeth confesses:
"It was I who killed my third brother and my own younger sibling."
Standing by a window bathed in sorrowful moonlight, Princess Elisabeth smiles. It was quite a famous scene from the game.
"At the time, I was merely thirteen years old. At the age of thirteen, I killed my own brother and younger sibling with these very two hands, staining them with blood. Then I disguised it as an accident. Truly a wicked woman, was I not? Had no demon possessed me, how could a young girl have committed such a monstrous deed?"
"The one who killed the princes back then may well have been a demon. But the person standing before me now is a woman grieving over a life destined to be cursed."
It was only natural that the Third Princess fell head over heels for the protagonist's lines. After that, the usual romantic scenes followed. To add to that, the First and Second Princesses were gang-raped and, unable to bear the humiliation, committed suicide — that was the premise. Specifically, they were violated by their own father and brothers, the Emperor and the princes.
A royal family that could rival any makjang drama.
The Habsburg Empire was rotten to the core, starting with the imperial household. Factional strife was fierce as well. In response, the Third Princess rallied loyal and patriotic subjects to rejuvenate the Empire from its very roots… and this, too, was one of the main scenarios in Dungeon Attack. At this point, the protagonist Hero lent legitimacy to the Princess's faction. The masses supported the Hero who had slain the Demon Lord, the Hero supported the Princess, and consequently the masses came to support the Princess as well. Put bluntly, the protagonist Hero was nothing more than a propaganda poster boy.
Well, it ended with a happy ending in the end, so maybe it didn't matter — but that happy ending was a story that would take place fifteen years from now. Besides, in this world, an irregular like me had thrown a wrench into the works. The Princess reaching that happy ending seemed like a tall order.
Laura held up two fingers.
"As far as the young lady knows, military authority in the Habsburg Empire is mostly in the hands of the Crown Prince. The central army is divided between the princes' faction and the princesses' faction, but the border margraves overwhelmingly support the Crown Prince. If so, the young lady has made a deduction."
Those blue eyes stared straight at me.
"Could it be that Commander Paimon has formed some sort of alliance with the Third Princess?"
"…"
"If the young lady's deduction is correct, then the central army currently joining forces with the border margraves is, without question, a faction that supports the Crown Prince rather than the Princess."
I didn't confirm or deny it and simply took a sip of my whiskey glass.
"The Crown Prince's thinking goes like this: combining the central army and the border forces yields a massive army of some fifty thousand. He would optimistically conclude that an Imperial army of fifty thousand could never lose to a single corps of the Crescent Alliance Army. Once he becomes confident of victory, he will thoroughly shut the Princess out of military command. Naturally — the Crown Prince would want to monopolize the military glory for himself."
"Hmm. If he single-handedly annihilates the Demon Lord's army, his prestige would shake the world."
"Exactly. The nobles and the masses would unite behind the Crown Prince. He would leap to the forefront of the succession race, leaving the Third Princess far behind in one stroke. To the Crown Prince, this invasion by the Crescent Alliance Army would look not like a crisis but a godsend opportunity."
I let out a deliberate "Hmm" to probe a little further.
"An interesting deduction. Quite plausible. But there's no evidence. We can't decide the Sixth Corps' policy based on a mere plausible conjecture."
"I expected the Master to say as much."
Laura pulled a rolled-up scroll of paper from inside her coat.
"It's a list of generals in the Habsburg central army that will merge with the border forces. The Third Imperial Princess's name appears nowhere in it."
"When did you obtain this information?"
"Ever since the Master advised Baron Barbatos to put humans in the forefront."
She smiled.
"I already sensed something suspicious in the Master's behavior back then. Even if the common folk submit to our Demon Lord's army, they're only trying to get past immediate danger—they don't truly serve the Demon Lord. The moment even a slight crisis arrives, those peasants will betray us in the blink of an eye. It was truly strange! The young lady knows full well that the Master is wicked, scheming, a coward, and the weakest of the weak."
I gave a bitter smile.
"Flattery that no loyal subject could ever bring themselves to say."
"No, it is praise. Because the Master is weak—precisely because of that—the Master perceives more thoroughly than anyone else what approaches as danger. The Master would never leave unattended a force capable of staging a rebellion at any moment. The Master possesses an animal-like sense for danger and will tear apart anyone who threatens them with enough ferocity. The advice the Master gave Baron Barbatos, frankly speaking, was not like the Master at all."
My, my. Laura always had a way of speaking so bluntly it left one embarrassed.
"Well, perhaps so."
"Here is what the young lady believes. The Crown Prince monopolized military authority, even if it meant going to some extremes, in order to gain the upper hand in the succession struggle. Meanwhile, Commander Paimon struck a deal with the Third Imperial Princess. The purpose is singular: once the Crown Prince's expeditionary force is annihilated by our Sixth Corps, the Third Imperial Princess will launch a coup."
I took another sip of the whiskey. It was delicious. Hmm, expensive liquor really was different. I'd have to pester Barbatos for a few more bottles.
"The Third Imperial Princess will declare the moment the coup begins: 'The newly established Habsburg Empire holds no hostility whatsoever toward the Crescent Alliance Army, and proposes an immediate ceasefire for the sake of the common folk suffering under war.' As every human and Demonkin on the continent stands in bewilderment, Commander Paimon responds. —'I, Paimon, the ninth-ranked Demon Lord, representing the entirety of the Crescent Alliance Army, accept the ceasefire request of the newly established Habsburg Empire.'"
Laura delivered the line in a theatrical tone. It suited her rather well.
"Master. What will become of our Sixth Corps?"
"We'll find ourselves besieged on both sides—the First Corps and the Habsburg imperial army."
The corners of my mouth curved upward slightly.
"Laura, well done. You've caught up to my reasoning. That's right. The reason Commander Paimon of the First Corps hasn't deployed until now isn't because she's lazy or because she's foolish. She's been waiting for the right moment, slowly, like a hyena."
"Then the First Corps' destination wouldn't be toward the Teuton Kingdom."
"Correct."
I raised my glass.
"The First Corps' destination is right here: the Habsburg Empire. Paimon intends to ally with the Imperial Army to encircle our legion."