The war had begun in earnest.
The demon army led with Valefor's mobile fortress. As the colossal structure, tens of meters tall, surged forward, the human army's lines crumbled helplessly. Their morale had already been shattered from the start. The opening battle ended in a clean victory for the Crescent Alliance Army.
Barbatos left behind a remark: "If they'd had fewer knights among the enemy, the opening battle alone would've decided the whole thing."
The human army's conscripts barely put up a fight, apparently. The moment the battle turned even slightly unfavorable, they routed in embarrassingly short order.
A unit routing didn't simply mean one unit's retreat. Fleeing troops would inevitably collide with allied forces behind them. Lines tangled with lines, creating chaos. The rear units, witnessing the allies in front of them running away, suffered devastating morale collapses. Soldiers deserted in droves, exploiting the confusion…… The result: at least three units were effectively paralyzed.
Since arriving in this world, I'd come to realize just how hollow the concept of a "strategic retreat" truly was. Without elite troops on the caliber of a knight order or the Black Fortress garrison, a strategic retreat was impossible. The mere act of pulling back was enough to cause one's own formation to collapse.
Disentangling and redeploying the entangled units would take days at minimum. The enemy would hardly sit idle during those days. A retreating army had no future.
Such disasters unfolded everywhere. They said more humans died from their own commanders' whips than from monsters. The human leadership must have realized by now just how enormously the defeat in the speech battle had influenced things compared to what they'd expected.
There was a reason I spoke of today's events as though they were someone else's story.
I hadn't participated in the battle.
"……Give me a little time to think."
It was roughly an hour after the verbal sparring had concluded. My head was spinning. Moreover, Jack Orland's counterattack and Paimon's betrayal had been far too shocking for me. I desperately needed time to cool my head.
"Don't take too long."
"Just half a day……half a day is all I need."
Barbatos nodded.
For the time being, Paimon was detained under the pretense of treating his mana backlash. He was transported into the camp of the Neutral Faction — neither the Mountain Faction nor the Plains Faction. Everyone knew this was more about isolation than treatment. I returned to my tent and rested.
I spread a blanket on the ground and lay down. I wasn't trying to sleep. I simply wanted to clear my mind. Numb, hollow time drifted by…….
Jack.
I could have dealt with him cleanly. But I'd let him go. He wasn't someone I wanted dead. If possible, I wanted him to survive so I could watch how he'd live. When he killed himself, I'd left his body untouched with the bare minimum of respect. That had become the spark that had pushed me into crisis.
I had grown complacent.
That might be one way to put it.
I realized I'd been living with some vague sense of playing a game. I struggled desperately to survive, yet a corner of me had retained that feeling……. But when I thought about it, the ones who had driven me to the brink of death weren't Princess Elizabeth or Bael.
Rift of Sachsen Village. Slave trader Jack. Characters whose names didn't even appear in Dungeon Attack. It was always guys like those who threatened my life. Had I grown complacent? Had I really looked down on them somewhere deep in my heart……
I'd always believed that I had truly seen Jack as a real person. But what if Jack Orland had been a famous character in Dungeon Attack? Would I have still tried to spare him? Probably not. But— yes. I still didn't really know.
"Status Window."
I murmured. I wanted to get a handle on my current situation first.
As if mocking my tangled emotions, a cheerful ding rang out.
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True Name: Dantalion
Race: Demon Lord Affiliation: Dantalion's Demon Lord Army
Alignment: Neutral (-10)
Level: 34 Infamy: 4510
Job: Dungeon Operator (F), Demon Lord (D)
Command: 34/37 Force: 7/12 Intelligence: 32/37
Politics: 35/35 Charisma: 20/20 Technique: 4/12
*Title: 1. Demon Lord of Terror
*Abilities: Tactics (E), Marksmanship (E), Mining (F)
*Skill: Acting
[Achievements: 3]
[Subordinates: 54 units / 260 units]
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[Titles]
1. Demon Lord of Terror. Shattered the grand order of the world. Revered by the Demonkin, feared by humanity: Leadership Limit +10, Intelligence Limit +10, Charm Limit +100, Subordinate Unit Limit +100, Notoriety +500
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My level had jumped by a whole ten at once.
For all the effort I'd put in, it seemed a bit lacking, but well—he was Dantalion. When he'd destroyed an S-rank scenario and an A-rank scenario, his level had only gone up by sixteen. This time he'd completely annihilated an A-rank scenario. He'd settle for this much.
...On another note, his Notoriety had skyrocketed.
"Oh boy."
What a joke. It had surged by nearly three thousand in one shot. He didn't know exactly what kind of effect Notoriety had yet, but one thing was certain—the bounty on his head had gone up. A higher bounty meant adventurers would naturally start targeting him. He was drawing aggro.
His level had only gone up by ten, but Notoriety jumped by three thousand. What a spectacular exchange rate. If a game like this ever launched in the real world, someone would set the developer's building on fire the very next day. If nobody else did it, he'd do it himself. Damn it.
The only consolation was his job level.
Demon Lord level had risen from E to D. The growth limit of his abilities had increased. Above all, the variety of monsters he could hire had surely expanded. Just to test it out, he opened the monster recruitment window for the first time in a while.
"Monster recruitment window."
A hologram materialized before his eyes.
There were sections for F-rank, E-rank, and D-rank, where he could select monster types. Last time he'd upgraded from F-rank to E-rank, he'd been a little disappointed. It had mostly just added more goblin variants—Goblin Rock Throwers, Goblin Spearmen, and the like.
He selected D-rank. This time, the selection pool had definitely widened a bit.
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[Monster Name (D)] [HP] [Attack] [Defense] [Hiring Cost]
-Torture Slime 20 1 2 500 gold
-Gnome (Lesser Fairy) 7 2 5 500 gold
-Goblin Cavalry 10 10 8 800 gold
-Goblin Sorcerer 5 20 5 1000 gold
-Zombie(*) 2 5 5 100 gold
*Your Affinity with the Demon Lord of Darkness, Barbatos, has reached 50, unlocking Special Hiring (Zombie)!
[Current Gold: 6102 gold]
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"Ugh."
Expensive! Still so expensive!
A Goblin Sorcerer. It looks shoddy, but finally, a mage-type monster has appeared. On top of that, this is the first cavalry-type monster to show up. This was cause for celebration. Adding a mage and cavalry would drastically widen the range of tactics I could employ.
I wouldn't have to cling to the golem-front / fairy-back tactic anymore. I could engage adventurers flexibly according to the situation... but it was still expensive! Even if I poured in my entire fortune, I could only hire six Goblin Sorcerers. At this rate, I doubted I could even properly use the newly diversified roster of monster types.
However, the "Special Hiring" concept was new. This was something I hadn't seen before.
I focused my gaze on the "Zombie." Immediately, a detailed description of the zombie appeared, and at the same time, a notification window pinged into existence.
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Congratulations!
You have activated the Special Hiring function for the first time.
Special Hiring monsters cannot be employed through ordinary means. They can only be hired by completing a specific Quest or by having a high Affinity with a specific individual.
The higher the difficulty of the Quest you undertake, and the higher the other party's Affinity toward you, the more special the monsters you will be able to hire! The type of monster you hire will be determined by the type of Quest and the attributes of the other party.
If you wish, you could fill your dungeon exclusively with monsters of a specific attribute. For example, if you were to hire only <Darkness> attribute monsters, you might be granted a special effect...?
However, if monsters of a particular attribute are hired, unforeseen disadvantages may arise. The choice is entirely yours.
Design your very own dungeon!
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"Hoh."
So it had this kind of feature. Pretty interesting.
Each of the Demon Lords had their own specialties. Valefor, with that enormous mobile fortress, specialized in <Water> attribute. Barbatos was, naturally, <Darkness>. And following from that, each Demon Lord's dungeon also had its own character.
Special Hiring gave me the leeway to choose that kind of character for myself. No, even setting aside the character aspect, the simple fact that I could hire a wide variety of monsters was a good thing.
Take the Zombies currently active as an example — their stats were plain enough, but the hiring cost was a mere 100 gold. Practically a steal. In a situation where funds were running low and adventurers came flooding in, I could use them as an emergency measure and hire Zombies in bulk. Hmm. Not bad at mind.
The fog that had clouded my head over the Paimon incident was slowly clearing. New features kept popping up, and I was gradually starting to get excited.
That's right — whether my notoriety grew or not, I was undeniably growing stronger. There was no need to become anxious beyond what was necessary. I had been a top-ranked player in <Dungeon Attack>. As long as I had sufficient funds and monsters, there was no hero in this world I needed to fear, no matter who came storming in.
Besides, once the Crescent Alliance Army business was over, I would be heading back to my sweet home, the Demon Lord's Castle. I would be saying goodbye to this exhausting political infighting for the time now. I would need to run my dungeon and steadily cultivate my own strength. A period of self-reflection, so to speak… Yes. There was no need to rush. I was doing reasonably well.
I wonder — if I raised Princess Elizabeth's Affinity, would I be able to hire something like a Royal Knight?
"Heh."
As if that were possible.
Royal Knights weren't monsters in the first place, and more fundamentally, raising Princess Elizabeth's Affinity was an impossible task. She and I were now sworn enemies to the bitter end. The moment so much as a glimpse of silver hair entered my line of sight, I would bolt away as fast as I could.
I was enjoying myself, mulling over ideas for designing my dungeon, when—
"Lord Dantalion."
Someone spoke from outside the tent. It was the voice of the beast-kin I had posted as a guard. I had told them ahead of time not to disturb me unless it was important. That was why neither Laora nor Lapis was present.
I called out while still lying flat on the floor.
"What is it?"
"Ivar Lodbrok, chairman of the Kunkuska Trading Company, requests an audience."
"Hmm."
Indeed. It was important enough to warrant attention.
The Kunkuska Trading Company was currently supplying the Crescent Alliance Army. From the First Legion to the Sixth, a total of six legions had gathered here. Their combined force had grown far too large to sustain through plunder alone.
I straightened up and spoke.
"Let him in."
"Yes."
In this scheme, Ivar Lodbrok had supported me thoroughly, and we had previously agreed that he would handle provisions once the legions assembled. In any army, the one who provides supplies is invaluable. Ivar's standing was implicitly treated as that of a high-ranking Demon Lord. When such a man requested an audience, I couldn't simply turn him away.
The tent curtain was drawn aside, and an elderly gentleman stepped in. The moment he saw me, he dropped to one knee.
"Glory to Dantalion."
"Spare me the formalities. Lodbrok. What brings you here?"
"Your Majesty. Your Majesty has graciously granted this humble one's wish."
Ivar spoke while still kneeling.
"My wish was the fragmentation of the Demon Lord's army. A wish I had never shared with anyone—Your Majesty saw through it at a single glance. I still find it hard to believe such a thing was possible, but one thing is certain: Your Majesty fulfilled your promise to me without the slightest deviation."
His expression was as earnest as it could possibly be.
"For three thousand years, I considered my existence meaningless and spent each day like a living corpse. But only now do I realize that my entire past life was leading up to this single moment. This humble one—Ivar Lodbrok—wishes to offer his oath of fealty to Your Majesty."
Ivar sprang to his feet and threw himself prostrate on the ground.
"Please accept this humble one's oath as your sworn vassal."
============================ Postscript ============================