Barbatos had deployed purely for show.
Death Knights could be kept in the shadows. When speed was of the essence — during a pursuit, for example — tucking them away into shadow and moving that way was far more efficient.
If Barbatos had genuinely intended to chase down the Imperial Army, she would have brought only a Demon Lord like Beleth and moved with a minimal elite force. She would have waited for the Imperial Army to spend the night, then seized the opening to launch a surprise assault. Death Knights were, after all, a troop type perfectly optimized for ambushes.
Yet she had marched openly with her full contingent of Death Knights on proud display.
I was certain.
"Not a single Death Knight actually died."
In reality, she had probably led the pursuit with nothing more than a handful of low-grade troops — Orcs, skeleton soldiers, and the like. And even those numbered barely a thousand… honestly, I had to wonder whether even that thousand had been fully expended.
By investing fewer than a thousand soldiers, Barbatos had obtained her justification. The Demon Lord who chased the human army to the very end — that was the narrative. At the moment every other Demon Lord had shown their true colors and abandoned the fight, Barbatos alone had wholeheartedly participated in the Crescent Alliance Army. She had made sure the world knew it.
The Demonkin would rally firmly behind Barbatos. Even if the majority believed that conquering the continent was an impossible pipe dream, Barbatos nonetheless had her justification. And that was something the Demonkin could not help but respect.
—Kekeke.
Barbatos's laughter replayed automatically inside my head. That woman really did know how to scheme despicably.
I sometimes wondered — living such a despicable life, wasn't she exhausted? A life lived a little more earnestly, a little more honestly, spreading happy smiles to those around you. Wasn't that the life truly worth living?
Barbatos's character was rotten through and through. Tch, tch. It was best not to get entangled with people of that sort whenever possible.
I spoke to Sitri.
"Thanks, Sitri. Because of you, I understand how the Crescent Alliance Army works now."
—Hehe. No, no. Don't worry about something like this.
Sitri beamed with a wide grin. The anxious dilemma she had moments ago — whether to apologize to Barbatos or not — had evaporated in an instant. If only life could be lived as simply as Sitri lived hers, wouldn't everything be far happier? The thought crossed my mind.
—By the way, Dantalion, your body looks really terrible!
Sitri delivered her remark without warning.
Right now, I was soaking my body in the underground pond. Naturally, I was naked. I had adjusted the angle of the crystal orb to only show my upper body, and Sitri had seen it and made her comment.
The corner of my mouth trembled slightly.
"You say my body looks terrible? That's nothing short of slander. My physique is extremely average."
— Huh?
Sitri made a genuinely bewildered expression. What was I even talking about? Her eyes said as much.
— No, Dantalion. Your physique isn't average, it's below average. That's for sure.
"......"
— You have no muscle. Your arms are scrawny. Your shoulders are narrow. Your chest is flat. How can you, Dantalion, possibly be considered average? This needs to be clarified. You couldn't farm or roll around on a battlefield with that kind of physique.
There was no malice in Sitri's expression or tone. She was simply stating facts as they were. As calmly as if she were saying, 'We had duck for dinner tonight.' She was pure and innocent, and in her innocence, she inflicted a tremendous wound upon me.
I made an excuse.
"I-I'm not the kind of Demon Lord who swings a sword on the front lines. I'm the kind who elegantly discusses strategy and tactics from the rear, so muscles are unnecessary. Right. What's important to me isn't body muscle, but brain muscle."
— Hmm? No way. At the very least, you have to look presentable. Dantalion, as both a lord and a strategist, looks far too unimpressive. Honestly, tell me. You don't exercise at all, do you? You can't do that! No matter how superior a Demon Lord's regeneration is compared to a normal Demonkin's, it doesn't automatically mean your baseline physique is also high.
Ah, I felt a strangely familiar sense of déjà vu.
This feeling—a mix of nostalgia and a deep-seated urge to rebel—if I wasn't mistaken, was undoubtedly one thing. That fundamental rebellion almost every human being is born with—that was a mother's nagging.
— Now that Dantalion has become a renowned Demon Lord, you need to start acting like one. I'm under Paimon's command, so I can swagger around as a notorious troublemaker, but you're not planning to remain just under Barbatos forever, are you? Right? Then you need to give people the impression that, 'Ah, as expected of a Demon Lord, they're on a different level'!
Whoa... I stared at Sitri with a face that had gone completely cold.
Why was I surrounded by nothing but nags? Lapis, of course, and Lau had also constantly nagged me about exercise. Now, Sitri was being added to the list. I had no idea what I had done wrong in my life to make everyone gang up and peck at me like this.
I knew. This era revered the muscular male. The so-called macho man.
It was only natural, I suppose. Macho men had the advantage in farming. They had the advantage in fighting. In an age where survival was considered the highest goal, people only ever cheered for the macho man. A man who wasn't macho could barely even survive.
In the very center of such an unreasonable era, I declared with dignity.
"The trend these days is the slender male physique!"
─ Huh?
"Muscle is nothing more than a symbol of violence and oppression. Why does every man have to be macho? Such a horrendous prejudice… a prejudice that sickens the age and sickens the people. Beauty is not the exclusive domain of women. Men can be just as slender!"
─ Hold on, Dantalion. What are you talking about? I can't follow any of this.
"Hah. Sitri. Pure of heart, perhaps, and that is precisely why you cannot free yourself from the prejudices of the age. You too are nothing but a specter shackled by the era's obstinacy. How lamentable. If I keep looking at you any longer, I'm going to shed tears. I can't help it. Let's end the call here."
─ Dantalion? Dantalion! Wait, I haven't finished talking yet….
I switched off the Magic Crystal Orb. The projection screen that had been displaying Sitri faded away. The underground cavern fell silent.
I could not suppress my regret. Sitri — I truly believed we could have become genuine friends. But the prejudices of an age were this solid and this heavy. Still, I suppose that was just how life was… insurmountable barriers that could never be understood always lay between one person and another.
I climbed out of the pond. I had nothing on my body. As my Demon Lord level had risen, I had gained the ability to slightly adjust the temperature of my dungeon, and right now it was cool enough to be comfortable and warm enough to be pleasant. After all, with only Laura and my monsters in the dungeon, there was nothing wrong with walking around naked.
I returned to the Demon Lord's chamber. Laura was reading a book. The sight of a golden-haired girl absorbed in her reading was a painting come to life.
"Uwu, Laura! Laura!"
I rushed at Laura while still naked. Laura shrieked in terror. She stood up from her chair while clutching the book protectively with both hands, but I grabbed her by the waist.
"Gahh! My Lord! What on earth are you doing!?"
"The world is bullying me, boo hoo. They're making fun of my body, saying I'm unhealthy and my build is a mess. Laura! Our Laura doesn't think that, does she? My build is perfectly average, right?"
Laura made a deeply exasperated expression.
"That is manifestly untrue, My Lord. You are, quite literally, the very epitome of a sorry-looking man."
"……."
"Gah!? Why are you groping my chest, My Lord! Ah, nnn, why are you pulling off my skirt! Wait. Wait a moment! At least give me foreplay and penetration before you— no, don't just do it right away, hah!? My Lord, it hurts! Hnngh, My Lord!"
Four hours later.
I looked down at Laura, who had collapsed on the bed and was panting heavily. Laura's hips were still twitching in aftershocks.
"So, Laura. Is my physique exactly average?"
"My Lord has... the most magnificent body... of any man... in the world..."
"Heh heh heh."
I grinned. Triumph swelled in my chest.
"Now you finally tell the truth. Come on."
I pressed my lower parts against Laura's face.
"Lick it clean as an apology."
Laura recoiled in disgust.
"Ugh. The smell of my fluids and your seed mixed together is indescribably bizarre..."
"These are your fluids, Laura. One should clean up one's own mess."
"Th-then at least clean up the seed yourself, My Lord!"
"It is only fitting that a subordinate handles My Lord's cleanup."
I said coolly.
Laura shed tears.
"How did this maiden's lot fall so low? Where did this maiden's life go wrong? Was life unreasonable and absurd from the very beginning? O Goddess, please have pity upon this fragile mortal."
"The Goddess has decreed it your fate to lick my glans right now. This was decided at the dawn of creation. Come on, hurry up and lick."
"Someday, I will surely kill the Goddess... *sniffle*."
With the most blasphemous words on her lips, Laura licked at my glans with her tongue. She played her tongue across it as if exploring, and before long, she took the shaft between her lips.
"Mmm."
A light, soft pleasure seeped into my lower body. Laura kept drooling, perhaps intending to wash away her fluids with saliva. The shaft quickly became slick. Laura sucked with wet, sloppy sounds—her fellatio technique was still first-rate.
"Keep sucking while you listen. It's a report on the Crescent Alliance Army's war situation."
"Mmph, slurp… mhmph… mph…"
"The Crescent Alliance Army has successfully seized the Habsburg Empire's islands. It was a bloodless occupation. Apparently, the Habsburg Imperial forces abandoned their own capital and retreated to the rear. The rumor is that the Emperor himself issued the order to give up the capital."
Laura paused for a moment. But she immediately resumed bobbing her head back and forth, diligently worshipping my shaft with her mouth. Even after four hours of nonstop sex, she should have been exhausted, yet my lower half had grown hard again and was plundering the warmth of Laura's mouth.
"Empress Elisabeth, who had been commanding the Imperial forces up until now, has been effectively half-deposed by the Emperor's decree. In reality, the one who organized the withdrawal from the capital wasn't the Empress but the Second Prince… Unlike the Empress, who had strong popular and military support from the start, the Second Prince is a successor backed by the court nobility. In other words, the current Habsburg imperial household is under the control of the court nobility centered around the Second Prince. That's how you'd have to read it."
"Mhmph, mmmnn… hmnn… slurp."
Ah. Laura had bared her teeth slightly.
It wasn't an accident. She had intentionally grazed the skin of my shaft with the very tips of her teeth. I didn't mind the sensation. A sharp tingle of pleasure shot upward.
Laura was now using her hands as well. She enveloped the upper part of my cock with her mouth while gripping the lower part with her hand and stroking. Soft pleasure and intense stimulation blended together into a throbbing vibration. I could feel cum welling up in real time.
Cum. Hurry up and cum, filling my mouth with thick, briny semen. Laura shook her head violently up and down as if urging me to do exactly that.
"Hmm."
Finishing like this felt somewhat unsatisfying. I reached for the beads scattered across the bed. They were strung together on hemp cord and coated in oil, giving them a slick sheen. I brought them over to Laura's behind.
"Laura. I have a question."
"Mmph?"
Laura looked up at me with my cock still in her mouth. Her green eyes held nothing but the earnest wish for this act to be over. It had already been four hours of sex. She was worn out.
"If you get it right, we'll call it a day. But if you get it wrong, I'm putting one of these in your ass."
"……."
Whether it was my imagination, Laura's expression darkened. Having her ass teased wasn't a problem in itself for her. Before she had been recruited by me, she had been extensively trained as a sex slave, and that so-called training had included anal training.
But the prospect of the act going on any longer was terrifying. That was the depth of Laura's feelings. Of course, what she thought about it didn't really matter, so I went ahead and started the Q&A as I pleased.
"Don't worry too much. There are several questions. You just need to get one of them right. How about it? Easy, right?"
Laura lowered her gaze and took my shaft back into her mouth. Do as you please, Master. That was what it meant.
"Here's the first question. According to rumor, the Emperor and the Second Prince have placed Princess Elizabeth under house arrest. Will Princess Elizabeth be deposed going forward, or won't she? Now then. If you think she will be, lick the glans lightly with your tongue. If you think she won't, take the shaft deep."
"……."
I had rattled off the question with the glee of a quiz show host, and Laura looked up at me with an exasperated expression. Yet even in the midst of all that, she never let the shaft slip from her mouth—proof of just how extraordinary her dedication to service was.
"You have ten seconds! Start! Ten, nine, eight, seven……."
"……."
Laura fell into deep thought. Just as I was about to count down to three, she carefully moved her head. Her tiny tongue gave the glans a little lick. She looked like a pet—it was cute.
I flashed a soft smile.
"Too bad. That's wrong."
I slid the first orb deep into Laura's anus. Even then, Laura never let go of the shaft in her mouth. Involuntarily, her body arched and a moan escaped her.
"Hng, hah, haaaah!"
"Oh. I should've mentioned this earlier, but every time you get a question wrong, I'll be inserting one orb. I'm terribly curious to see how many orbs can fit inside Laura's belly."
I beamed with a wide grin.
Laura's eyes were dyed in despair.
============================ Author's Notes ============================
Dantalion: Tsk tsk, you little pervert—soaking in filth from head to toe.
Barbatos: Sheesh, you're nothing but a deviant who only thinks about wrecking people.
Laura: …….