Barbatos's palm was as cold as ice.
"You know perfectly well, Dantalion. You're just pretending you don't."
I turned my upper body slightly to glance at Barbatos. Did she have no intention of letting me go? Barbatos kept her grip locked on my wrist, staring me down. Because of the height difference, it ended up looking like she was gazing up at my face.
"Pretending I don't? About what?"
"You could just absorb the Mountain Faction right here and now. It's the simplest and most foolproof method, after all. Zepar won't need to bow his head, and neither will that son of yours. We erase every last trace of that bitch Paimon's legacy in one stroke, and everything falls into place."
Her lion-like golden eyes gleamed with killing intent.
"The Mountain Faction dogs are all gathered here in the imperial palace, aren't they? Perfect. What a wonderful opportunity. We can clean them all out in one go."
"…Are you out of your mind, Barbatos?"
I let out a bitter laugh, dumbfounded.
"All the other side wants is a single apology. You don't even have to apologize personally. All I have to do is bow my head, and everything ends happily and safely. But you'd rather start a war just because you can't bring yourself to lower your head once?"
"We didn't do anything wrong. Zepar didn't do anything wrong, you didn't do anything wrong, and damn it, neither did I. Dantalion. I really don't see why we should be apologizing to that piece-of-shit emperor."
It seemed Barbatos was completely serious.
"That's what politics is."
"Politics is a tool for people who at least appear to be on equal footing. I am the most powerful Demon Lord."
The grip on my wrist tightened.
"We don't need politics anymore."
"…."
"The only reason I've held back from crushing the Mountain Faction all this time is because Paimon was popular among the Demonkin. People are always charmed by a woman who flirts around laughing cheaply like a whore. But now Paimon is dead."
Barbatos's lips twisted into a sneer.
"And Sitri proved just how stupid she really is. She slaughtered a hundred thousand Demonkin — innocent civilians who hadn't done a thing. She forgot that the lifeblood of her own faction is the Demonkin, and instead started killing them herself. That fool of a woman…."
"Thanks to that, the Mountain Faction is united as one."
"Doesn't matter if a pack of sickly runts bands together. Even a passing stray dog wouldn't be afraid of them."
Barbatos was, in fact, striking at precisely the right pressure point.
Thanks to Sitri's reign of terror, the Mountain Faction had managed to hold together even in this critical hour. But the real problem was public support.
The Demonkin were currently mourning Paimon's death. The sentiment among the masses was that the Demon Realm's Archdukes who dared to assassinate Lord Paimon deserved to be torn limb from limb — and even that wouldn't be enough. But as for the massacre Sitri had carried out, the large-scale atrocity that swept up civilians who had nothing to do with the Archdukes or any other ruler — naturally, the reaction was overwhelmingly negative.
Blood-soaked Sitri. That was the new epithet stuck to Sitri's name.
But no one dared voice their condemnation aloud.
Even those who wanted to condemn her couldn't.
The most powerful rulers of the Demon Realm had been killed off with shocking ease. A hundred thousand civilians had been buried over the span of barely ten days. In a situation like this, there was no Demonkin bold enough to hurl insults at Sitri — at least, none who still existed in this world. They were all buried underground.
So, in other words —
"Sitri is digging her own grave."
If you weren't a Demonkin but a Demon Lord — if you were the only one of your kind who could stand against a Demon Lord — then even in this situation, it would have been possible to condemn Sitri.
"Killing a hundred thousand innocent Demonkin was already more than enough to cross the line. And now she's purged Belial, her own faction member. Dantalion, you fool. This is not the time for us to bow our heads. This is an opportunity. A once-in-a-lifetime chance that will never come again…!"
Barbatos was right.
If we intended to destroy the Mountain Faction, this was precisely the heaven-sent opportunity we had been waiting for.
Paimon, their leader, had been assassinated. Sitri, who had risen as the new head, had lost all public trust. Meanwhile, the Plains Faction stood tall and strong. The Plains Faction now possessed both the justification and the strength to bring the Mountain Faction crashing down.
And yet the reason I hadn't pointed this out was —
"Don't feel guilty about Paimon, Dantalion."
"…."
"Even if you sacrifice yourself for the Mountain Faction now, you'll just look pathetic. Why? Did you feel sorry for Sitri because she went crazy? Did you suddenly start thinking this was all your fault — did you feel some kind of self-loathing?"
Barbatos sneered.
"Don't be ridiculous. Cheap emotions like pity and guilt are fit only for animal feed for dogs and pigs. They serve no purpose whatsoever other than adding dead weight to your soul. If you were going to be this soft, you shouldn't have killed Paimon in the first place — you should have—"
Barbatos grabbed my hand and placed it on his own chest.
"You should have killed me. Instead of choosing me, you should have chosen that bitch Paimon. But you didn't, Dantalion, you fool. You chose me. You have to carry the weight of that choice forever!"
Barbatos slapped my cheek. It wasn't a hard slap — the force was so weak that my head barely turned.
It was the kind of gesture that struck the mind rather than the body.
"Don't half-ass this. Stay vicious until the end. This is simple politics, just like you said. And the essence of politics is that the weak get devoured by the strong! A Mountain Faction without Paimon has no legitimacy and no value! Why on earth should we keep a weakling alive that has neither legitimacy nor value!"
Only then did Barbatos release his grip on my wrist.
But Barbatos's gaze never wavered — it held me firmly the entire time. That gaze would not let me go.
"My mind's made up. When Zepar reported to me, I was still on the fence, but seeing what a pathetic state you're in set my resolve straight. Ah, yes. This time, I'm going to grind to dust the maggots gnawing away at the Demon Lord's army."
"That's reckless. Even if the Mountain Faction has almost no fighters, there's still Sitri."
"Hah, speak properly even if your mouth is crooked. She's the only one — strip her away and there's no one left. You think that bitch can handle Belial, Zepar, and me all at once? Surviving even ten minutes would be nothing short of a miracle."
I fell silent. That was true.
After a brief pause, I spoke.
"The other Demon Lords won't just stand by and watch the Plains Faction run unchecked. Look at Marbas, for one. The reason even a man of reason and culture like him is staying silent about this massacre is because he believes the Mountain Faction cannot be allowed to fall right now."
"I'll pass along the information that Sitri killed Belial."
Barbatos answered immediately. It didn't feel like he was speaking off the top of his head. He had probably been sitting alone in the garden long before I arrived, staring at the pond and deliberating at length. That was how Barbatos built his plans.
"What old man Marbas fears isn't the collapse of the faction itself — it's the loss of control. If he becomes convinced that that bitch Sitri is running rampantly beyond anyone's ability to contain her, he'll take the blow and move to cut her loose."
That, too, was true.
If it came to light that Sitri hadn't stopped at slaughtering civilians but had even killed fellow Mountain Faction Demon Lords without hesitation to sustain her reign of terror, Marbas would seriously pursue the dissolution of the Mountain Faction as well.
"There's no need to execute every last Mountain Faction Demon Lord. They're all spineless cowards who can't do a damn thing without someone leading them. Get rid of Sitri and they'll go crawling back on their own. If it comes to it, let them all join the Neutral Faction for all I care."
"......"
"And, Dantalion. A hundred thousand Demonkin died without any crime to their names."
Barbatos spoke in a gloomy tone.
"A Demon Lord is one who bears responsibility for the Demonkin. Sitri, who threw that duty aside and ran wild with blind vengeance, no longer has the right to call herself a Demon Lord. Even for the sake of the Demonkin alone, I must execute Sitri."
That, surely, was the decisive reason for Barbatos.
He had simply been holding his breath and waiting for the right moment to seize. For her, Sitri purging Belial was actually something she had desperately wished for. It was a long-cherished ambition—the plan to abolish the Mountain Faction and establish the Plains Faction as the true voice of Demonkinkind. This was the opportunity to make it happen......
"Dantalion. I told you back in Bruno—you can't remain the little prodigy any longer. You must become a Demon Lord who carries the collective will of the myriad demons upon your shoulders. If there ever comes a moment when we need a king—this is exactly the kind of moment I'm talking about."
"......"
"Execute the lunatic who massacred a hundred thousand of her own people. There is absolutely no room for private emotions like guilt to creep into this."
Barbatos tapped his fist lightly against my chest with a soft thud.
"I'll handle persuading old man Marbas. You convince Vassago and Gamigin. Both of them would dance naked in the middle of the desert if you asked, so it shouldn't be hard. Once I get the old man on board, everything's settled."
And then Barbatos walked past me and began to leave. The white-haired Demon Lord slowly trod the stone path of the back garden, which had grown dark after clouds shrouded the moon.
"If you absolutely cannot bring yourself to kill Sitri......come find me and tell me directly. Say you won't participate. I'll respect your feelings. But I will be very disappointed in you. Deeply disappointed."
His footsteps grew farther and farther, and at some point they dissolved into the air entirely.
I was left alone in the garden.
Barbatos had always forced a choice upon me, and this time was no different. Paimon or me. Sitri or me. He made what was vague and indistinct become sharp and clear. But the one who had to bear the weight of that choice was me.
I held no resentment about that.
Nor did I blame Barbatos for it.
I was the root cause from the very beginning. I thought I could manipulate and control them all—the Plains Faction, the Mountain Faction, the Neutral Faction, even the unaffiliated Demon Lords. I suppose that's what you'd call immature confidence. Naturally, factions and individuals who had been at odds for thousands of years would never let go of their old grudges just because of one person like me.
Even if things hadn't taken this form, sooner or later I would have had to cut away one of them—Barbatos or Paimon.
The only thing was, I thought that would happen at least ten years from now.
But Paimon and Barbatos both judged that it was happening right now.
And so Paimon made the bold move of convening a representative council under the banner of republicanism, while Barbatos used the Grand Dukes of the Demon Realm to assassinate Paimon. Both of them believed that if it was going to happen eventually, they had to strike first—if they didn't, they would be the ones struck down.
"......"
I was the clumsy one after all.
Had I made a mistake somewhere?
Whether intentional or not, Barbatos had pointed it out with perfect accuracy. I would have to carry this responsibility forever. The moment Paimon's hot blood had soaked my palm, I had already intuited that with absolute certainty……
I turned on my heel. In that direction was the bedroom where Gamigin was staying.
From here on, I would persuade Gamigin. Then Vassago. There was no stopping any of it. Barbatos, me, Sitri—none of us could ever stop…….