Among the mayors of the six villages, only Parsi knew of my plan.
First, I would gather a large number of adventurer parties. The thugs from out of town would wreak havoc without a shred of fear for the heavens. The villages, lacking enough militia members, had no choice but to endure the unreasonable abuse.
They couldn't solve it with their own strength. If that was the case, they had no option but to borrow someone else's power... The residents would look into who could possibly help them. And then they would realize they needed to reach out to the lord, Demon Lord Dantalion.
"What did the mayors have to say to you?"
"Don't even get me started. 'Go tell His Majesty the Demon Lord,' they say — and when he says no, try asking nicely at least... Good grief. I'm sick to death of it."
Parsi rubbed his face with both hands. Signs of exhaustion seeped from the corners of his eyes.
Publicly, Parsi was known as my close aide. The mayors, operating on the principle that to bring down the commander you first shoot the horse, had come swarming after Parsi first. And it wasn't just the mayors.
The landlords who threw their weight around in each village — of course, they were prime targets for adventurer parties and were getting plundered the most — were coming and going from Parsi's house at intervals shorter than half a day, and even the common residents petitioned him to please relay a word to His Majesty the Demon Lord.
"Ah, I keep telling them there's nothing I can do, but they just won't listen! Do they take their ears for their backside?"
"Yeah. You've had a tough time of it."
What can you do? Looks like things are only going to get tougher from here.
See, I was planning to recruit talent from Frank in a big flashy sweep to lighten your burden a bit... but I got absolutely crushed by Henrietta, so I couldn't even get close to them. Haha. Turns out recruiting talent isn't as easy as pulling cards in a game.
Still, I'm not completely useless. I did bring back a few kids worth nurturing.
"Have you met Daisy and Luke, the ones I brought back this time?"
"……The little sibling pair? Sure, I met them — I'm the one who delivered them to their parents, after all."
"Whenever there's a village assembly, bring them along."
Daisy was bright, of course, and Luke was sharp too. Jeremy had only served as their tutor for about a month, and they had already learned to read the Frankish script. They had also made a fine start in the Ancient Imperial language. Before long, they'd probably be fluent in Habsburgish too.
But Parsi didn't look convinced.
"What am I supposed to do with a couple of kids?"
"I'm thinking of raising them as a butler and a maid. They'll end up interacting with the villages on my behalf. They need to get used to how villages work, starting now, little by little."
"Hmm."
Well, if that is Your Majesty's will, Parsi said.
"By the way, of those two siblings, the younger one — the girl — is quite the handful. My word, I'm not even sure if I should be telling Your Majesty this, but..."
"Oh? What happened?"
"I had them stay the night at my house. In the middle of the night, the boy apparently needed to relieve himself and went outside, didn't he? Well, I woke up. I've always been a light sleeper, so the slightest movement wakes me right up."
Parsi furrowed his brow.
"But then I heard this strange noise, you see? At first, I thought I was hearing ghosts in my sleep, but it wasn't that. I listened carefully, and it was coming from the girl's side. Well, I was startled — the little thing was touching herself!"
"......"
I fell silent. Sweat trickled down my forehead.
"You, you must have misheard."
"Even if my ears are completely useless, do you think I'd mistake the sound of someone masturbating? Ugh, anyway, she hasn't even grown hair down there yet, but she's got quite the appetite — breathing all heavy like that... I mean, no matter how young you are, who does that sort of thing as a guest in someone else's house? Honestly."
Parsi clicked his tongue.
"I'm telling you this because I heard Your Majesty plans to raise those children. That's given me a prejudice, I'm afraid. At some point, could Your Majesty please give them a firm lesson in proper manners? We can't just let that sort of perverted behavior slide, can we?"
"......Ah. You're right. I'll make sure to scold them properly."
The one who taught and encouraged that perverted behavior was none other than me, Parsi.
Anyway, Luke — that kid is the real problem! Going outside in the dead of night and masturbating... he's clearly fallen hard for the slime onahole. The eleven-year-old boy had become utterly enchanted by a slime's texture. He didn't even realize that the ridges and grooves carved into the onahole were, in fact, meant for exactly that sort of thing.
I silently offered my deepest condolences to Daisy, who had been mistakenly branded a pervert thanks to her brother's voracious libido. Of course, only in my mind.
"Well then, it's about time we start sending replies back to the village heads."
I quickly steered the conversation elsewhere. Parsi didn't notice the shift and nodded along.
"As eager as a stallion in heat with his parts all swollen up, so if Your Majesty commands them to gather, they shall come."
"My position is clear and simple. Accept my decree."
The contract forged between the villages and myself was essentially one thing and one thing only.
I would protect the villages from monsters, and in return, they would acknowledge me as their ruler.
As the lord, I assumed the obligation to control Goblins and other Monsters. The villagers, as subjects of my domain, gained the obligation not to betray me, the obligation to report land reclamation, and so on.
—Nowhere in the contract was there any clause stating I would protect the villages from humans.
If an adventuring party brazenly ravages a village, so what? Adventurers are not Monsters. Whether non-Monster humans pillage, commit arson, or even slaughter the villagers, it bears no responsibility whatsoever on me, Demon Lord Dantalion.
I said:
"Convey this exactly. This situation falls outside the scope of our contract. A Demon Lord is, by definition, one who governs Monsters. How should I control the invasion of non-Monster humans? Human affairs are for you humans to handle yourselves."
As it was, the villages had already betrayed me twice.
First, when Leaf's adventuring party had barged in. Only the villages that had not betrayed me and sided with me survived. They knew all too well how I exacted vengeance upon traitors. Should the current situation arise, not a single voice would dare suggest, "Let us join forces with the adventuring party and split the Demon Lord's Castle's riches!"
Second, when the village heads had arbitrarily embezzled taxes. I had graciously forgiven them and let it slide. The villagers understood that as well. If they had any shame, they could never bring themselves to say, "Please drive away the adventuring party for free."
The only solution left between me and my domain's people was a single one: a business transaction.
"If you wish to entrust human affairs to me as well… then I, as one who has become a king, must govern you in the manner of a king. Be faithful to the law. Should you violate the law, you shall go to another village and stand trial before the elders. This is the price for the guarantee of absolute protection I offer you."
Parsi let out a wry smile.
"I shall convey your words exactly, my lord."
The farmers here are conservative and do not accept new policies.
That is precisely why I led the farmers to view the new policy as a transaction with compensation. If all they had to do was promise to stand trial in another village, then lo and behold — the Demon Lord himself was offering them protection! What an incredible deal!
They weren't being asked to pay more taxes. They weren't being told to become personal soldiers and pledge loyalty. All they had to do was stand trial before the influential figures of another village when trouble arose… They would think it was practically a free deal.
The reality was different. For the villagers, it was tantamount to voluntarily surrendering their own judicial authority.
The villagers had no reason to care about political concepts like judicial authority when adventurer parties were already storming through their doors. I had prescribed a radical dose of poison — adventurer parties — to cure the disease of conservatism.
While the cure was taking effect, my subjects were being robbed of their possessions. There were probably households whose daughters had been violated by adventurers. I was committing these atrocious acts not only against the enemy but against my own people as well……
Worse than a tyrant. No — the proper term would be a treacherous king. Barbatos had told me to become a ruler, and yet this was the only way I knew how to govern.
"But, Parsi. You're quite the smooth talker yourself."
"What absurd nonsense are you spouting?"
Parsi tilted his head.
Did he truly not know? Or was he Acting?
Either way, it didn't matter. I was confident I would come to like Parsi regardless. If it was the former, I'd be drawn to his blind innocence; if the latter, to his beast-like cunning. Both were qualities I admired.
"A village chief is supposed to protect his villagers' property and uphold the law, isn't that right? You neglected your duty and pledged loyalty to me instead. Between your obligation to your villagers and your loyalty to your lord, you chose the latter. Why was that?"
I smiled coldly.
"Did you consider me more valuable than your own people? Before you were a village chief, you wanted to be my sworn servant?"
"……."
"Don't worry, Parsi. I'm not reprimanding you. You've always been faithful to me. I'm simply curious — how do you think, and what is your true nature? Please, be honest."
Parsi's expression settled into a calm composure. He answered nonchalantly.
"Well, to be frank, I don't feel any great loyalty to Your Excellency the Demon Lord. I never joined Rif's adventurer party, and when the village chiefs were throwing their little tantrums, I was the one who stepped up and put them in their place. There's nothing for me to be ashamed of. However……."
"However?"
"It's about when I first met Your Excellency, back in the day."
His voice dropped low. It sounded like it could belong to a young man, or a middle-aged one, or even an old man — he spoke in that kind of voice.
"Do you remember? I had just lost my father and was thrust into the role of village chief. Another landowner could have served as interim chief, but Rif was too frightening, so they dumped the burden on young me, still red in the face."
"Ah, I remember."
Parsi had been rude from the very first time we met. Rude, yes, but his words were measured and deliberate — and above all, while he always considered his own interests, he never once disregarded my position as the other party. He was a fellow with a natural gift for politics.
"You wouldn't happen to remember how my father died, would you?"
"...Wasn't it because he refused to cooperate with Rif's adventuring party? That's how I recall it, at least."
"That's correct."
Parsi spoke.
"The truth is a bit more complicated. My father actually planned to lead the villagers in an assault on that bastard Rif. He intended to greet him the moment he entered the village — and then take him out in one stroke."
"Oh my."
It was a story I'd never heard before. Wasn't the father just as bold a man as his son?
"As planned, the adventuring party advanced deep into the village. My father bellowed his orders: 'Attack! Attack!'"
"Impressive. And what happened?"
"Nothing at all happened."
Parsi snickered.
"The villagers actually laid eyes on the adventuring party and lost their nerve. Even after my father gave the order, nobody moved. Nothing happened. My father ended up screaming by himself in front twenty armed adventurers."
"..."
"That bastard Rif had the reflexes of a demon."
Rensing the situation, Rif immediately swung his axe.
Parsi's father, incensed by the villagers' betrayal, couldn't mount a proper defense — and his head was split apart like a log by the axe blade. According to Parsi, he had watched the entire scene from the very beginning.
That was the kind of person Parsi was. It was no wonder he could avert his gaze from the duties of a village chief.
"...I see."
Parsi gave a flat, disinterested nod.
"Well, that's how it was."
I pulled a pipe from inside my coat and lit it, then handed it over to Parsi.
Parsi took the pipe without a word and exhaled a long, slow breath into the air. A quiet stillness settled between the two of us. He passed the pipe back to me, and I drew a puff and sent it up into the open air as well. We both knew — Parsi and I alike — that this was an offering to the Father above.
There was no person in this world without a single scar. That much was obvious. That was precisely why I could only say what I had said, and why Parsi could only say what he had said.
That was just the way it was.