In the end, we finished the harvest in a single day. The next day, I strolled leisurely through the village.
The sound of joyful harvest songs echoed everywhere. Seeing this, Laura smiled warmly.
"The people are happy, which makes me happy as well."
"Same here. Either way, they're all my assets."
"...How cynical."
Laura gave me a sidelong, fish-eyed stare.
"You know what? You sometimes say terrible things on purpose. Hypocrisy deserves contempt, but feigned wickedness is just as pathetic. You're disguising your true feelings and making excuses for them."
"Hmph."
I pursed my lips, feeling somewhat sheepish. Recently, the number of times Laura criticized me had skyrocketed. It coincided exactly with when we'd started spending our nights together. They say that when a man puts in the work, a woman's nagging decreases, but with us it's the complete opposite...
"By the way, my lord. Why didn't you lend the golems to the farmers?"
Laura changed the subject. How annoying!
Unlike Lapis, Laura didn't drag out her nagging. She'd deliver one piercing remark and then move on to a different topic as if she'd already forgotten about it. Which meant I couldn't even push back.
"Golems have proven to be overwhelmingly efficient for farming. If we lent them to the farmers, crop yields would increase accordingly."
"Of course, efficiency would improve."
I shrugged my shoulders.
"But equity wouldn't hold up."
"Equity?"
"Yes. Think about it. Some wealthy farmer spends a fortune to rent a golem. Farming becomes remarkably easy for him."
Up to there, it's fine. But what would the other farmers think?
Our lord prioritizes those with money. Having money or not is the lord's criterion for judgment... That's how they'd see it.
"It's a problem. Chasing efficiency alone weakens the very cohesion of the domain. It's the same as splitting the domain's people into two groups. Sacrificing the strength of the entire domain just to make a few more coins — that's something no ruler should do."
"Hmm."
Laura tilted her head.
"Isn't the lord's power the domain's power? In the end, it's the wealthy farmers who provide you with real strength, not the poor. So wouldn't a policy that favors the wealthy farmers actually benefit you, and the domain, in the long run?"
That could be true. People of this era, excluding republicans, believed that the domain belonged to the lord. Laura seemed to think a great deal about matters related to herself, but she had little interest in broader social issues.
She was supposed to become a prime minister responsible for an entire society, after all.
There was a reason the Kingdom of Bretagne fell in Dungeon Attack.
I spoke.
"Well, honestly, everything comes down to the question of efficiency. In any society, there are those who rule and those who are ruled. The rulers must not be numerous. This person follows that ruler, and that person follows another ruler... On the surface it looks like one society, but in reality it's multiple societies."
In a pinch, the nation's consensus would shatter.
In my domain, there needed to be only one ruler — the Demon Lord Dantalion.
"Say wealthy farmers are given preferential treatment. Several side effects immediately come to mind. First, the domain's people come to believe that money is the path to success in everything."
When building a reservoir or constructing city walls, everyone pitches in. When enemies invade, everyone risks their lives equally in battle. Why should only the wealthy farmers receive special treatment?
What matters to our lord isn't loyalty. It isn't devotion. Isn't having more money what truly matters...
"In the end, devotion to me dwindles, and people become obsessed with accumulating wealth. Laura, do you understand? It's as if two rulers have emerged within the domain — the Demon Lord Dantalion, and another ruler called 'money.'"
That wouldn't do.
How much wealth one had should remain purely a personal matter. You've amassed a great fortune? Congratulations. Enjoy it to your heart's content. But it must have absolutely no influence over my decisions as the ruler.
Because you are a mere subject of the domain, and I am the sole ruler.
"I want to be an absolute ruler. It's not that I particularly want to meddle in everything. I need to become a mountain that the domain's people would never dare look upon as an equal. That way, even I can rest easy!"
"I see."
Laura sounded impressed.
"What matters isn't wealth, but how much one has devoted to you. Nothing else."
"After all, I am the domain itself. You could also say it's about how much one has devoted to the domain as a whole."
"Hmm."
Laura seemed to find some thread of inspiration in my words and fell into silent thought.
In the distance, among the wheat fields, some women spotted us and waved. I waved my right hand back. Whatever was so delightful about that, the women burst into hearty laughter among themselves. It was the kind of scene that naturally brought a smile to one's face.
As we walked along the path toward them, the women stopped their scything and chattered excitedly.
"Oh my, Your Majesty, you're so beautiful!"
"The two of you together — you're truly a match made in heaven!"
Laura seemed so startled that she stuttered.
"W-What... royalty? That's not what this is."
"Not what? You're the Demon Lord's wife. That makes you the queen."
All around, the women chimed in, "That's right, that's right!"
"Ah, wife... Laura's face turned red. She waved her hands frantically and tried to explain.
"I'm merely, simply, how should I put it. Not a wife, but rather a vassal... No, perhaps I should say a companion to my lord... Ah, in any case, I am not a wife! Queen? What nonsense!"
"Huh? We've been firmly convinced all this time that you were the Demon Lord's lady."
The women's gazes all turned to me.
Their eyes clearly said, go on, explain.
"..."
Laura too was fidgeting, stealing glances at me. She kept her head lowered and peered up at me through her lashes, but the moment our eyes met, she quickly turned away.
My, my.
I didn't even need to read her psyche through the Status Window. Laura was a seventeen-year-old girl brimming with dreams. She might be cynical about worldly affairs thanks to her unique outlook on death, but becoming someone's wife would surely hold great meaning for Laura as well.
Setting aside whether we were actually a couple or not, the fact that other people perceived us as one — that alone was enough to make Laura blush. Truly, it was adorable, perfectly befitting her age.
"Laura. Look at me."
"Huh?"
She turned her head.
I naturally placed my right arm around her waist and cupped the back of her neck with my left hand. When Laura's expression showed a question mark — what are you doing — I pressed my lips to hers.
"...Mmph!?"
The sudden kiss made Laura's eyes go wide. She kept making muffled sounds, clearly wanting to shout something. But it was no use. Ignoring her resistance entirely, I slid my tongue between her lips. A deep kiss.
"Oh my, oh my!"
"Aaahhh! Heavens!"
I could hear the women's cries of shock. It was shock thoroughly laced with delight. Not a single one scolded us for indecency. They all screamed and reveed in the spectacle.
Laura flailed both arms in protest. Her green eyes were screaming furiously, What are you doing in front of everyone! Sorry, but the whole point is that people are watching, my dear. I moved my tongue even more vigorously.
Sliding.
"Mmph, nngh, pfft!?"
Cupping gently.
"Mmph, mnnph, mnn... nngh, haa, mhph, nh!"
Sucking.
"Haaaah, my lord, mmph! Mnnngh... ah, haa, mmph, ah, mmmph!"
Mixing it all together.
"Mmmph, nngh... nn, mnnn... my lord, ah... no, nngh, nhph, stop, nnnnn...!"
Laura's knees gave out and she collapsed against my chest as if fainting. Her face was flushed crimson and she was panting as though suffering from respiratory distress. Holding Laura with one arm, I turned my gaze to the surroundings.
"..."
"..."
The women had stopped their squealing. Even the older women were blushing with embarrassment. They all averted my gaze and hemmed and hawed. Among them, a young woman who looked like an unmarried maiden covered her face entirely with both hands.
I smiled and spoke.
"A king takes multiple concubines, as is his right. This woman belongs to me. Need I say more?"
The women replied in hushed, mouse-quiet voices, "No, Your Majesty." Then, thoroughly mortified, they gathered their farming tools and fled in a hurry. They had abandoned their work before the sun had even set.
Amused by the farmers' innocence, I chuckled quietly. Then Laura murmured softly.
"M-My lord..."
She clutched the front of my clothes and looked up at me with moisture-laden eyes. There was heat in her breath. Oh dear — I may have teased her a bit too much. It seemed like the switch had been flipped.
"You want to go at it?"
"..."
Laura nodded her head exactly about 0.1 centimeters.
I gave her a gentle smile. A girl in the bloom of youth. Even if intense kissing had aroused her, I had no intention of making fun of that. In the end, it was my responsibility anyway.
"Take them off."
"Huh?"
Laura's eyes went as wide as saucers.
"What did you just say... We should go to the villa..."
"I said take them off. Right here."
Her expression went completely white.
"B-But we're outside..."
"Right now."
I pulled Laura gently into an embrace, still wearing my broad grin.
"Right here, right now, in a straight line. I want to go inside Laura."
"N-No, absolutely not!"
Laura pushed against my chest. But there was no strength in her hands whatsoever, so it had no effect.
"You beast! Orc! Heat-crazed dog! How can you do something like that outside... I can't believe it!"
"Heh. Just a moment ago you were begging me to do it, and now that I say yes, you get angry? What you say before and what you say after don't quite match up."
I held her even more tightly.
"Even someone as generous and kind as I am gets angry when you pull something like that!"
"H-Haah..."
She genuinely looked like she was about to cry.
"Don't, my lord... Then what's the difference between that and animals mating? Please, maintain some dignity as the Demon Lord!"
"Human or demonkin, we're all beasts to begin with. There's nothing strange about mating like beasts!"
"That's absolutely not true —!"
Whether Laura screamed or not, my resolve was firm. I stripped her bare and had her from behind in the middle of the wheat field. The wheat stalks carpeted the ground softly enough that my knees didn't hurt.
Aroused by our first outdoor escapade, I kept going until the sunset had long faded and the surroundings had grown completely dark. I'll simply note that Laura's pale, bare skin glowing in the twilight was extraordinarily beautiful.
This time, Laura was so thoroughly furious that it took a full week before she was in good spirits again. She kept muttering something about how someone must have been peeking. I privately thought that being peeked at probably made it feel even better, but I didn't say that out loud.
Just as the harvest across the entire village was wrapping up, Lapis came to visit.
I'd been expecting her to arrive around this time, so I welcomed her warmly — but it turned out Lapis hadn't come alone.
"...What is this?"
"It belongs to Dantalion-sama."
Before my eyes lay a literal mountain of treasure.
Jewelry boxes, chests of gold coins, all manner of expensive-looking ornaments and weapons. Good lord, what on earth was all this?
"The exact amount is 103,504 gold."
"..."
While I stood there gaping, Lapis handed me a document. The paper was filled with a long list of unpronounceable names.
"What... what is this now?"
"This is a list of key figures in the Demon Realm that Dantalion-sama will need to meet going forward."
Lapis spoke in the same tone one might use to remark that the weather was lovely today.
"I trust you've been at leisure. Worried that you might grow bored, I took the liberty of creating some work for you."
This woman...
"I'm going to rest a little longer!"
"What a pity."
Her tone conveyed absolutely no pity whatsoever.
"This 100,000 gold was collected under the pretense that you would agree to meet with these individuals. Now that you're refusing to meet them, all of it should be returned... Shall I send it back?"
Lapis asked with a completely expressionless face.
She truly was a despicable woman. This was the first time I'd encountered such a formidable opponent.