He could no longer keep his expression in check.
The anger hadn't yet shown on his face, but he didn't know how much longer he could hold it. The citizens were restless, and that she-wolf of a Saint would be sniffing around. Getting out of here was the priority.
"Take me to where Daisy is."
"Yes."
Lapis couldn't raise her head. When he swallowed his rage back down and patted her on the shoulder, only then did she finally look up. They left the ducal hall and headed for the Demon Lord's Castle. A few executives spotted them and moved to follow, but he raised a hand to stop them.
Everything was fine until they reached the Demon Lord's Castle.
The problem came after. Instead of going to the tenth basement level where the executives' quarters were, they were heading to the ninth basement level for no apparent reason. He furrowed his brow.
"There's no room for Daisy here."
"......"
So that was it. For some reason, she'd been confined away from her own quarters. And not a single report about the disciplinary measures taken against Daisy had ever crossed his desk. Things just kept getting worse.
The breaking point came when Lapis stopped walking.
"This is it, Lord Dantalion."
He stared ahead in silence. Where Lapis had stopped, there was a door of iron bars. The walls were clearly unfinished — rough-hewn stone that looked like lazy contractors had barely bothered with it. It was a cave, nothing more.
An underground prison.
"You... you...!"
His teeth ground together of their own accord. Veins stood out on his neck. The instant Lapis unlocked the cell, he kicked the iron gate open with a thunderous clang and strode inside. Water streamed endlessly down the cave walls, and the prison was suffocating with sinister dampness.
There Daisy hung.
Reeking of a blood stench so thick it could make you retch.
"......"
He was so consumed by rage that no words would come.
Daisy's limbs were bound to the wall like a crucifixion. Her head hung limp — she'd lost consciousness. There wasn't a single scrap of cloth to cover her body. On her snow-white skin, hideous wounds gaped open.
There weren't just one or two. Dozens, hundreds of marks from relentless lashing were laid bare. Some wounds had clotted into disgusting scabs of dark blood. Others hadn't healed at all, with thick blood still seeping from them.
She looked less like a human being and more like a rag.
"Explain. Now, Lapis."
Lapis dropped to her knees before him.
"It was suggested by some of the executives that the head maid may have been plotting an assassination."
"Say their names. Exactly."
His voice struck the underground prison like a physical blow. It was the demonic roar of a Demon Lord's mana. The cave walls trembled. Lapis bowed her head even lower.
"Laura de Farnese, the Military Affairs Minister, and Ivar Lodbrok, the Chamberlain. The Military Affairs Minister in particular insisted that the head maid had undoubtedly tampered with the poison during its transport. And so, while Your Lordship was unconscious, personal punishment was administered to the head maid—"
"How dare you!"
He roared.
"How dare the head of the military arbitrarily punish a member of my inner court!"
"Daisy, who had been attending to the Saint's bedside, was secretly summoned and confined at a location in Amstel."
Lapis's words came faster now. She was trying to get all the necessary information out before he completely lost control.
"Afterward, she was transferred to the Demon Lord's Castle and thrown into this underground prison, where she was subjected to whipping, branding, and all manner of torture. Each executive was asked to keep it secret, with the Military Affairs Minister claiming she would bear full responsibility. Please... kill me."
"——Laura!"
He roared with fury.
His head maid and adopted daughter lay against the wall like a half-dead rag. The vassal he treasured most in all the world knelt on the cold cave floor, begging for death. The general who had been the most dependable of all, the loyal subject who had never once betrayed his trust — had deceived him.
His mind was on the verge of snapping.
"Assemble the vassals! Right now!"
His eyes looked ready to burst from their sockets.
"Everyone except Luke! Even those not involved in this — every last one of them, here! Now!"
Lapis left the prison.
He pulled a potion from his pocket, intending to apply it to Daisy's wounds. But then it struck him — he couldn't let the vassals see her wounds healed. They needed to see this wretched scene exactly as it was.
Perhaps because he'd drawn close, Daisy stirred weakly.
"...Ah, Master...?"
That wasn't a voice — just a faint gasp. His teeth ground together.
"You fool. What on earth did you do to end up so despised by the vassals that not a single one of them stood up for you? If the Administrative Minister had stayed silent too, you'd be dead already!"
"...It's not... that big a deal."
Even covered head to toe in bruises, she was still trying to act tough. He couldn't believe it.
Daisy lifted her head and looked his way. Even that small movement seemed to tax her — her head and neck trembled. She was gaunt and wretched. Her pitch-black eyes were unfocused, and her lips had split open, leaking blood.
"Damn it. Shit...!"
Profanity escaped his lips without thought.
He had absolutely no intention of turning Daisy into some noble victim. The malice directed at Daisy should have come from him and him alone. This girl was his creation — a flower of malice born solely from his own hands!
The malice Daisy held toward the world should be none other than malice toward him! The only world she was permitted to know was him — nothing else existed. Nothing else should exist!
This child was his!
She should look only at him, hate only him, learn through him what revenge and relationships truly were, and through this child alone could he be fully affirmed or denied! She was his living witness, his sole advocate, his sole judge — and in the end, the one human who would stand in his stead!
His masterpiece — .
How dare they trifle with his exalted judge!
"......"
Daisy looked at him with difficulty as he seethed in silence. She gave a faint laugh. When he glared at her — what the hell are you laughing at? — Daisy moved her cracked lips in fits and starts, like a fish thrown on dry land gasping through its gills.
"Father... it's so obvious what you're thinking..."
"......"
"Those thoughts... you don't even need to say them out loud... it's funny..."
He gently covered Daisy's mouth with his palm.
"I'll be the one to carry out the revenge. I'll repay them for you."
"...Hah."
She let out a breath that might have been a laugh or a scoff, and her head dropped. Just in case, he checked her pulse. She'd only fainted. That was fine. Daisy had endured even more painful surgeries than this. There was still time.
A short while later.
The executives filed into the prison one by one.
Some gasped at the sight of Daisy. Others merely furrowed their brows, as if they'd already known. Fortunately — or unfortunately — there was only one who belonged to the latter group.
"Everyone."
Once all who needed to be present had arrived, he spoke.
"Kneel."
At his command, the vassals prostrated themselves on the cave floor. Lapis, Laura, Parsi, Jeremy, Ivar — five in all. Far off in the distance, Bling and the fairies watched with anxious glances.
"Lapis."
"Yes, Your Lordship."
"Raise your head."
Lapis slowly raised her face. Without hesitation, he struck her across the cheek. A sharp crack rang out as she crumpled helplessly to the ground. Lapis didn't scream. All that could be heard were the shocked gasps from those around her.
It was well known that Lapis enjoyed nearly exclusive favor with him. And he had struck her. The other vassals didn't dare utter a word, bowing their heads even deeper.
"Get up."
Lapis rose to her feet. He struck her again immediately. Her body staggered.
With a voice colder than ice, he ordered:
"Get up."
Again.
Lapis never let out a single groan, and he said nothing beyond that dry command. Only the terrible sound of the blows echoed through the underground prison, chilling it to the bone.
Exactly thirty strikes. He held nothing back. He struck Lapis's cheek with everything he had. That much was obvious from the way her shoulders trembled in silence.
"The Administrative Minister was supposed to thoroughly oversee the inner court and rigorously monitor the departments to prevent any overstepping of authority, yet she neglected her duties and failed to restrain the Military Affairs Minister's unilateral actions. Her crime is grave. Dock the Administrative Minister's salary for two years."
"Thank you... for your lenient... punishment..."
Lapis bowed with her shaking body. Her legs gave out and she crumpled.
Silence and fear crushed the prison.
With a tongue colder than ever before, he called out one name.
"Laura de Farnese."
"Yes, my lord."
"Make your final defense."
Laura pressed her forehead to the floor.
"The head maid committed treason."
"Very well."
He nodded. It meant she had no defense to offer.
"Jeremy. Hang the criminal from the ceiling chains."
"Yes, Your Greatness."
Jeremy was nothing like her usual self. Her expression, her tone, her body language — all of it belonged to an emotionless assassin. Jeremy rose immediately and bound Laura's wrists to the chains. Like a slab of meat in a butcher's shop, Laura was hoisted to the ceiling.
"The Military Affairs Minister presumed to judge the head maid for a crime without my instruction, thereby violating the law by bypassing a fair trial. She presumed to read my intentions, breaking the bond between lord and vassal. And by punishing the head of another department, she disrupted the very foundation of the state."
He picked up a whip that had been prepared in the corner of the prison.
"Therefore, Laura de Farnese is hereby stripped of her position as Military Affairs Minister and ordered to serve as a common soldier. She shall receive thirty lashes."
"Y-Your Lordship!"
Parsi cried out in alarm. Of everyone present, Parsi was the only one with little enough involvement to safely advocate for leniency — he oversaw territories somewhat removed from the other executives.
Parsi, who normally spoke to him like an old drinking buddy, now addressed him with formal deference as though he were a completely different person.
"Thirty lashes on a woman's body is an unbearable punishment! Rather, punish all of us equally, Your Lordship!"
"I am sentencing all of you to a six-month salary reduction. But I will not reduce the criminal's sentence."
"Your Lordship!"
Parsi raised his head.
"......!"
The moment their eyes met, Parsi froze. His rugged face went pale with shock, as though he had witnessed something that should never have been seen. He stared blankly at the corners of Dantalion's eyes for a long moment, then lowered his head in defeat.
He gripped the whip tightly.
"Expose the criminal's back."
"Yes."
Jeremy stripped off Laura's top. A snow-white neck and back were exposed. The body of a woman he had been intimate with many times lay before him.
The whip sliced through the air with a sharp whistle, and the sound of flesh splitting open erupted.
Laura screamed.
He gave her no respite, laying into her without pause. By the second strike, her skin had already split wide open. Every time the whip cut through the air, bright red blood sprayed. He swung the whip while letting that blood splatter across his face.
On the ninth strike, Laura lost consciousness. He gestured to Jeremy.
"Wake her up."
Jeremy poured cold water over Laura. The water seeped into her wounds. Laura was violently dragged back to consciousness by the excruciating pain. He swung the whip again.
Over and over.
Again and again.
Laura lost consciousness seven times. The muscles of her back had been reduced to shreds. Blood washed over blood as it pooled on the floor.
His breathing was ragged. Punishing Lapis and Laura back to back had drained him completely. He had shown no mercy in his blows.
Breathing hard, he spoke.
"When a subject commits a fault, the responsibility lies with the sovereign. I, Dantalion, appointed an unfit individual to the critical post of Military Affairs Minister. I failed to notice the Administrative Minister's wrongdoing. I failed to notice the head maid's torture."
He handed the whip to Jeremy.
"As the one who must pass judgment upon himself — Vigilante Captain, you are to administer sixty lashes to me immediately."