"Your Excellency Andromalius! You go too far!"
Bupphae spoke. Andromalius was unfazed. He quickly pulled back the hand he had shaken with me and flicked it as though something foul had touched it.
"Go too far? Seventy-first? Then it's no wonder I can't remember the name. Hey, friend. What were you hoping to see in this backwater that made you come all the way out here? Make yourself scarce."
"Lord Dantalion is a guest of our Kunkuska Trading Company."
Bupphae stepped in between Andromalius and me.
"Our company will not tolerate any further insults."
"Oh? And what exactly will you do about it, huh? Capture me and give me a paddling? Oh my. If word got around that a trading company was seizing Demon Lords without cause and torturing them, the other Demon Lords would be absolutely thrilled. That's exactly why you're insufferable, you bat."
Andromalius shot Bupphae a sideways glare.
"Even if you wriggle out of the Word Spirits with your little tricks, you're still someone's slave. That doesn't change. So—what was your name again? Hm? You must have one, surely. And you feel no shame whatsoever using that name to refer to yourself?"
"......"
"Pathetic little slaves. Lowly worms, the lot of you. In the end, you belong to us Demon Lords. Don't you forget that."
Bupphae fell silent. Internally, he was grinding his teeth with fury.
It seemed Bupphae had acquired the ability to resist a Demon Lord through some unknown method. It was clearly not a method he was proud of, which was why he endured the humiliation. The fact that he possessed a means of opposing a Demon Lord's power was intensely fascinating, but I tucked my curiosity away for the time being. Hearing words like "slave" had already allowed me to piece together the general truth.
"Ptoo."
Andromalius spat. On his way back to the tavern, he glanced at me once. His retreating figure looked remarkably frail.
Bupphae bowed to me.
"I apologize for the disgraceful display."
"It doesn't matter. You did your duty."
I asked the question I was curious about.
"I have a few questions. Do laws exist among the Demon Lords as well?"
"There are none, Your Majesty. Even if a Demon Lord enforces laws, they apply only within that lord's own territory. Nothing reigns above a Demon Lord."
"Do you know how to use magic?"
"I do, Your Majesty."
"Excellent."
My mind was made up.
I pulled a magic scroll from inside my garment. It was one of three I had purchased from Lapis some time ago. I had used one at the slave auction house, and two remained. I handed one of the scrolls to Bufoe. Bufoe took the magic scroll in a daze.
"This is...?"
"A scroll containing a mid-scale summoning spell. Cast it here."
"Y-Your Majesty."
Bufoe's voice turned grave.
"I humbly apologize, but I cannot do that. In Niflheim, summoning magic is strictly prohibited under law. Moreover, what Your Majesty intends to do from this point..."
"No law can reign above a Demon Lord."
I stared straight at him. I didn't even feel the need to use my Acting skill. I had a strange certainty that if I pushed hard enough, he would have no choice but to obey.
"You said so yourself. Did I mishear you?"
"...No. You heard correctly."
"I will not permit any further questions. Cast it."
My eyes were reflected perfectly in Bufoe's pupils. From a short distance away, I could hear the sounds of Andromalius making a racket. The aged Beastkin elder kept repeating apologies like a broken machine. I wasn't watching, but I could sense it all—the injustice, the indignation, and the hostility felt by the Demonkin who had gathered in the square.
"...I shall obey your command."
Bufoe unfurled the scroll.
I turned my head to glance toward the tavern. Andromalius—the Demon Lord who had been consumed explaining the controls to the player of Dungeon Attack. Like any tutorial enemy inevitably would, he dies straight away at the hands of the protagonist Hero. When the Hero demanded to know why he had razed his village to the ground, Andromalius gave this reply:
——Why does one need a reason to step on a bug?
It was a statement that played an enormous part in shaping the Hero's hostile views toward the Demon Lord. Because of Andromalius, the Hero resolved that the very existence of the Demon Lord must be driven from this world.
"Arcessitus."
Bufoe muttered. Immediately after, a red magic circle rose in the center of the square. The color of the circle differed depending on the species. Red was probably the symbol of Vampires.
All eyes converged on it. Everyone looked bewildered, wondering what was going on. Bufoe was feeling anxious. I alone watched the magic circle at my leisure, heart thumping just slightly. Soon after, a golem squad and a fairy squad emerged from the circle, engulfed in red light—summoned.
"That's summoning magic!"
"Insane—who the hell cast that kind of magic!?"
"A guy from the Kunkuska Trading Company did it. I saw him tear the scroll."
People hurriedly gathered in a corner of the square. Each of the various races instinctively found their place. In no time, the battle formation was complete. The sight of them drawing daggers and other weapons deftly from their clothing spoke of seasoned fighters very much accustomed to combat.
'Impressive.'
I felt a twinge of admiration.
'An ambush against those wouldn't accomplish much.'
Compared to the attitude the humans had shown at the slave auction, these residents were like veteran warriors. If they had been my target this time around, things would have been rough for certain.
Andromalius alone stood apart from the group, staring blankly in our direction. He seemed unable to grasp the situation at all. Oh my—he even had his mouth hanging wide open like that. A fly was bound to get in there at this rate.
Perhaps because this was the second time, the monsters remained composed despite the sudden summoning. The golems and fairies awaited my command fiercely, as if asking whether they were free to run wild once again. A few impatient fairies had already taken to fluttering around the sky above the square on their wings. Cute little things.
"Wind Cutter."
I smiled and raised my right hand. Then I pointed my index finger precisely in one direction.
"Concentrated fire."
Standing right where my finger pointed was Andromalius, standing there dumbly. The fairies instantly launched blades of wind. The magic unleashed by ten fairies was already nothing short of overkill for Andromalius.
The basic attack power of a low-rank fairy is 3. Since my fairies have an average level of 3, their average attack power comes out to roughly 4. Andromalius's defense is 3. Subtracting the defense of 3 from the attack power of 4 leaves an attack power of 1 in the end. That means this single volley of attacks dealt a total of about 10 damage to Andromalius. With a mere 5 HP, he wouldn't survive even one round.
But it would be troublesome if he died right away. I ordered my adorable fairies to aim for non-lethal areas like his arms and legs.
"H-hieeeek?!"
Andromalius screamed in terror. He immediately spun around and bolted. But there was no way he could outrun the wind. The wind cutters struck him square in the back of the thigh. He toppled over with a shriek.
"Gwaaaah! Shit!"
Perhaps he still had some grit in him — Andromalius crawled on all fours into the tavern. I leisurely followed him inside with the fairies. They flew in an ellipse formation around me. The golem was too large to fit through the building's entrance, so I left it waiting outside.
"Gghh, gghh. What the hell is this, huh?! What the hell?!"
Andromalius was huddled in the corner of the tavern, trembling all over. He must have lost quite a bit of blood while crawling, because a red liquid stained the floor. When he saw me approaching, he spat out a string of curses.
"Fuck! You bastard, what do you want?!"
"I can't quite grasp the essence of your question."
I answered in a good-natured tone, slightly amused now.
"Well, first I'd have to say it's a pretty stupid question. If you're asking what I am, all I can say is that I'm the Demon Lord."
"Gguhkh! Why is a Demon Lord bastard trying to kill me?!"
"Another foolish question. Is there really a need for some special reason to step on a bug? Hmm, before we continue this conversation, you really ought to fix that foul mouth of yours first. What's that? Don't worry. I'll go ahead and correct your speech patterns for you automatically."
I snapped my fingers.
"W-what — gwaahhAAAHK!"
The fairies fired their wind cutters with pinpoint accuracy into the man's forearm. Droplets of blood sprayed into the air. Andromalius clutched his injured arm with his other hand and writhed on the floor. His face was already a mess of tears.
"There. Try listening to what I have to say instead of just screaming."
"Gguhkh, gguhhh……"
"I've been rather tired these past few days. I came all the way to a city in the Demon Realm for a rare vacation, hoping to find some peace of mind and body. And as I'm strolling through the city in a wonderful mood, some thug starts picking a fight with me. I'm asking purely out of curiosity — how do you think that would make you feel?"
"I'm sorry, gukh! S-sorry……."
It seemed Andromalius had finally grasped the situation, and he began to beg. He only started pleading after his legs and arms had been thoroughly wrecked — a rather belated realization, to say the least. I decided to repeat back to him the very same words he had said to the old man of the Miao clan just moments ago.
"Don't apologize with mere words. Show me sincerity. Real sincerity."
"I-I'll give you money! Gukh!"
Andromalius fumbled inside his coat with trembling hands, pulling out a pouch and attempting to place it at my feet. Without a shred of mercy, I stomped on the back of his hand. The money pouch tumbled from his grasp to the ground below.
"Guuuhk!"
"Are you reducing me to some common thug right now? How disappointing. If the entirety of the sincerity you can offer me is this, then I cannot guarantee your life."
"A-anything, I'll give you anything! Please, just my life……just my life……."
Now he was muttering with his forehead pressed flat against the ground. Saliva kept flowing from his mouth in his pain, slightly muffling his speech.
It was strange. When I had done the same thing to Jack, I had felt depression and guilt. But now, there was nothing of the sort. If anything, it was satisfying. Then again, Jack had been a gullible fool, but he was never trash. This one was trash.
"There is one thing I would like to know."
"Anything, anything……."
"If you answer me honestly, I guarantee your safety. How about that. Do you feel inclined to answer?"
Andromalius nodded his head vigorously. "Nodded" might have been generous — "thrashed about" was more accurate. But even that degree of a gesture was enough to satisfy me.
"Andromalius. Where is your Demon Lord's Castle?"
"In the Frank Empire, guuh……the Frank Empire. In the Loren region……midway up Mount Raelia."
"Well done."
I smiled, satisfied.
"What is the name of the village near the Demon Lord's Castle?"
"Pometra, Campanil……there are only nameless villages besides those……."
Excellent. This is exactly what I was aiming for.
Starting a while back, a new problem had cropped up for me — namely, how to deal with the Hero, the protagonist character of *Dungeon Attack*, who in ten years' time would become the Hero and go around thrashing Demon Lords. According to the scenario, I was the one set to be subjugated by the Hero right after Andromalius. Even if only to prevent that future, some degree of advance preparation regarding the Hero was necessary from any angle.
'The problem is that I have no idea where the Hero lives.'
The game only mentioned which country the Hero was from — it never specified the exact region or village where he was born. I had essentially given up on directly restraining the Hero. But when I saw Andromalius, a good idea came to mind.
According to the tutorial, there is a Hero's village near Andromalius's Demon Lord's Castle. If that was the case, then couldn't I find the Hero's village by conducting a concentrated search of the area surrounding Andromalius's Demon Lord's Castle?
'If I were to eliminate the Hero now, while he's still nothing but a brat……my chances of surviving in this world would increase dramatically.'
Before the enemy had any real chance to grow, I would pluck the weed out by the roots from the very start. It was a slightly underhanded trick, but I was never the type to back down over something as petty as a little underhandedness. After all, to me, a Demon Lord, the Hero was nothing more — and nothing less — than a terrifying existence.
"Graaaagh!"
I drove more force into my right foot, which was grinding the back of Andromalius's hand flat against the floor. Another scream erupted. As expected, it was a satisfying sound to hear. I could feel my stress melting away in real time. I was starting to worry that before long I'd become the kind of pervert who relieved stress by tormenting others.