After sleeping with Laura two more times, I left the Demon Lord's Castle.
Laura criticized me as though I were some sex-crazed Orc in heat. But I had my excuses. Namely, what good would suddenly showing up at the village do? The slash-and-burn farmers would only be thrown into even more of a panic.
I had already announced through the Magic Crystal Orb that I would be paying a visit. I even made it clear that this visit carried no grand significance — I simply wanted to see how things were these days. Hmm. Wasn't that incredibly considerate? Not only did I give advance notice, but I also warned them not to go out of their way with hospitality. There probably wasn't another Demon Lord as kind as me.
The next day, I headed to the village at a leisurely pace.
Not that Dantalion had a clue, of course.
His announcement of a visit was like a bolt from the blue for the slash-and-burn farmers.
The visitor was a Demon Lord. Moreover, he was a merciless, ruthless tyrant who had beheaded every single villager who had interfered alongside the Leaf Adventurer's Party, without a single exception. From the villagers' perspective, the name Dantalion was nothing less than synonymous with terror.
When Dantalion announced through the Magic Crystal Orb that he would be visiting, the villages were thrown into utter chaos. The village heads scrambled to gather in one place for an emergency meeting. They rode the few horses available in their villages and struggled to assemble.
"He's never visited once before, and now suddenly he says he's coming... I-It must be that, surely?"
"Mm. That's probably it."
Men whose bodies had been honed muscular from a lifetime of farm work nodded with grave expressions.
"So he's finally expecting us to produce our tribute..."
The village heads' expressions darkened.
Tribute. It was essentially a form of tax.
Originally, there was no reason for them to pay taxes to the Demon Lord. The Demon Lord had demanded their loyalty, and in return guaranteed them complete freedom. But the Leaf Adventurer's Party incident had changed everything.
There were twelve villages settled around the dungeon. A staggering five of them had rebelled — nearly half. The Demon Lord Dantalion had guaranteed complete freedom while asking for nothing but loyalty. Yet the villages couldn't even uphold that loyalty... The contract had been broken.
Among the surviving villages, quite a few had displayed fence-sitting diplomacy during the adventurer incident, trying to play both sides. The village heads were well aware that one wrong move could have led to the total annihilation of their own villages as well. Perhaps tomorrow would be the day they made that wrong move. The atmosphere at the village heads' meeting grew increasingly grim.
"Let us offer tribute of our own volition, before he demands it."
One village head said with a sigh.
"Whether you offered tribute because you were forced to, or whether you offered it of your own free will — the difference between the two is greater than you might think. His Majesty the Demon Lord will, to some extent, take our dignity into consideration."
"Will he really? I saw His Majesty the Demon Lord leading his army with my own eyes last year. He was a nightmare incarnate."
Another human shuddered. What he recalled was the image of Dantalion delivering a fervent address before a horde of Goblins. Hundreds of monsters baring their teeth and roaring in adulation — what a sight that had been! He finally understood why the Demon Lord was called the sovereign of monsters.
"Dignity or whatever — that's not something he'd care about. He might even add our heads to the tribute list…"
"That — that's exactly why I'm saying we should prepare as much tribute as we possibly can."
Just as the village heads' meeting was growing increasingly dire…
"Hmm."
Watching it all unfold, the young village head Parsi tilted his head. He was one of those who had accompanied Dantalion directly during the adventurer incident. He had watched Dantalion from the closest vantage point, and therefore knew full well that this was not the sort of man who would strong-arm villages like a common thug just to extort tribute.
'Has nothing to do with me, really.'
Even if Dantalion genuinely did threaten to demand tribute, Parsi was confident that his own village would be exempt. After all, during the adventurer incident, he had fought hardest on the Demon Lord's side.
'Honestly, I think these old coots got scared all on their own. Like thieves whose feet itch with guilt… Should I poke at that, or not?'
Parsi narrowed his eyes and studied each village head's face, one by one.
Something stank.
Parsi was illiterate, unable to read a single character, but he had been born with a razor-sharp intuition. It was precisely that instinct that had caught Dantalion's eye in the first place. And right now, that instinct was telling him — those village heads were hiding something dirty.
"Hey, gentlemen."
The young village head spoke up. Everyone turned to look at him.
"Let's be honest. You lot have done something you'd really rather the Demon Lord didn't find out about, haven't you?"
"What — what are you talking about?"
One village head denied it flatly. A flawless response. But three other village heads had flinched. Parsi's hunter's eye missed nothing. These old coots had really done something!
The polite, respectful tone that Parsi had been maintaining slipped away, replaced by a savage edge in his voice.
"Now spit it out, you bastards. What did you do?"
"So you're saying we actually did something. Stop yelling at us for no reason."
"Oh, you idiots. It's obvious that a few villages got together and cooked something up. Do you not realize that if just one of you rats to the Demon Lord, the whole thing blows up?"
Parsi sneered.
"I'm sure you've been scratching your heads over how much tribute you'll have to cough up. You're telling me not a single one of you thought about snitching to reduce the amount?"
"......"
The man's face crumbled. He was cornered. Parsi was right. If an enormous tribute obligation could be traded for a single act of snitching, anyone would take that deal.
There was no grand friendship between the villages. They merely shared the bare minimum of trust as needed. In other words, the moment it became necessary, they would betray each other without hesitation. Just last year, hadn't some villages used the backing of their militia members and adventurer squads to seize the property of other villages?
The four village heads looked at one another. Their expressions were deeply troubled.
"Well, the thing is... the truth is......"
A short while later.
Parsi roared.
"I've never seen such colossal idiots in my life!"
Even the village heads who hadn't been involved in the scheme stared at the ringleader group with dumbfounded expressions. They looked like they were watching lunatics. One of the village heads who belonged to the ringleader group stammered.
"A-ah, well, still, it seemed like a waste to just leave perfectly good farmland sitting idle..."
"You call that an explanation! Those rice paddies don't belong to any of you!"
This was what the four village heads had done.
The villages that had been devastated by the Leaf incident. However, the rice paddies those villages had been cultivating weren't necessarily destroyed. The village heads looked at the farmland that had survived intact and drooled.
Could we put those to use somehow?
The villages were overflowing with second and third sons who held no farmland of their own. Having failed to inherit the family line, they were nothing more than labor. The village heads lured them in and generously tossed them the empty farmland — as though it were their own to give. In return, they demanded fifty percent of the annual harvest.
"Arrow-heads with no brains!"
Parsi exploded in rage. Because of what these idiots had done, his own village was about to get dragged into the mess.
Think about it. They had completely failed to notice the issue until now, yet the moment Dantalion was set to visit, they were rushing to confess everything. It looked almost like they had deliberately hidden it until he was about to find out. The entire lot of them was on the verge of being suspected as accomplices.
The territories that had vanished due to the rebellion were now held by Demon Lord Dantalion. It was common knowledge that a rebel's land reverted to the lord who quelled the uprising. What those village heads had done could be summarized in one phrase: they had arbitrarily seized the lord's territory, distributed it among their own villagers, and even embezzled the taxes.
It was a splendid act of rebellion.
Usurpation of the lord's authority, infringement on tax rights… the list of potential crimes was incalculable. This wasn't something that could be resolved by sacrificing the heads of three or four village heads. Even if every villager was executed, it wouldn't be enough to excuse them.
"H-h-help us. Even if it's the Demon Lord, if you just feign ignorance…"
"Are you mad? Hell no. I've never developed a taste for suicide."
Parsi drew a dagger from within his robes. Seeing this, the village heads gasped in shock.
"What are you going to do?!"
"Look, if I leave this alone, even our innocent village brats are going to end up splattered with blood. I'm sorry, but you'll have to die right here, you old coots. Hey, all of you! If you want to survive, stick with me!"
Parsi's actions were decisive and swift. Like a swift beast, he lunged and stabbed the ringleader among the village heads. The blade entered his neck cleanly. The man screamed and collapsed.
Seeing this, the other village heads also drew their daggers. A chaotic brawl erupted. Thanks to Parsi's efforts, the innocent village heads prevailed. Parsi flicked the blood from his dagger and spoke in a flat, bored tone.
"For now, we'll need to offer these heads to the Demon Lord."
"What about the tribute?"
"Hmph."
The situation had become thorny. What was originally a tribute they wouldn't have had to offer had now become absolutely necessary.
Fundamentally, these people were accustomed to collective responsibility. Not doing something directly didn't mean you escaped punishment. If your sibling committed a crime, the family bore responsibility. If your neighbor did wrong, the five surrounding households were held accountable. It was an era where such things were normalized.
From the Demon Lord's perspective, this incident had occurred because one village failed to properly surveil another. Parsi ground his teeth in frustration.
Suddenly, the image of a human girl who had been seen always at the Demon Lord's side flickered in his mind. Laura, or something like that. She was definitely the same age as him. An exquisitely beautiful woman.
"How many maidens are there in your village?"
"There are two."
"Our village has three..."
When they were all counted, there were barely ten. Parsi wasn't satisfied, but he proposed that they gather what they could and present them to the Demon Lord anyway. If they adorned the maidens with flowers and piled on the tributes, it would at least look passable as an offering.
"Oh boy. I can already feel a headache coming on just thinking about what the village bachelors are going to complain about."
"Should we buy slaves from outside? Tsk, tsk. Even the heavens are cruel. How did things end up like this?"
Everyone was somber. There had originally been twelve villages, which had been reduced to seven after the rebellion incident, and now it looked like they'd be cut down by three more. The old saying that humanity's most dangerous enemy isn't monsters but fellow humans surfaced in everyone's minds.
"You sons of bitches!"
Parsi couldn't contain his rage and stomped on the corpses. It was a flagrantly improper act, but nobody tried to stop him.
The village heads returned to their respective villages immediately. Time was short. They spent the entire night pressing their villagers to prepare the tribute. The village maidens who were suddenly told they would be married off to the Demon Lord burst into tears.
The families were furious, but when told it was for the sake of the village, they had no choice but to back down. This wasn't an era where you could survive on your own without the village's cooperation. Through the deep night, the sound of women weeping drifted through the air.
"Please forgive us!"
"We beg you—please show mercy and forgive us just this once!"
The sight that greeted me the moment I arrived at the village was people who had come out to the very front and were prostrating themselves on the ground. They had piled up grain and such like mountains. In front of the grain sat some orc women with flowers tucked into their hair, sitting meekly.
Even though I had clearly informed them that this visit was nothing of consequence.
"......"
I was so dumbfounded that my mouth hung open. What are you people doing?
============================ Author's Afterword ============================