Lapis ran her finger down the list written on the parchment.
"As you can see, the further down the rankings you go, the more Mountain Faction members appear. It's no coincidence. The weaker a Demon Lord's power, the more they position their Demon Lord's Castle in places where monsters dwell and no humans are found."
Just as Lapis had pointed out, from rank 1 to rank 20, the Mountain Faction, Plains Faction, Neutral Faction, and those unaffiliated with any faction were mixed together in relatively equal proportions. But below rank 20, the Mountain Faction's share surged dramatically.
The meaning was clear.
"They're extremely reluctant to fight humans."
"That's right. After the seventh Crescent Alliance Army expedition, the Demon Lords became intensely averse to waging war against human kingdoms."
The Crescent Alliance Army referred to the allied forces assembled by the Demon Lords in Dungeon Attack. Throughout history, the Demon Lords had launched massive armies on multiple occasions in attempts to conquer the Human Realm. They had achieved some degree of success more than once, but the outcome was always the same.
Expedition failure.
There were various reasons for this. The biggest problem was that the Demon Lord alliance army was composed of a whopping seventy-two rulers. It was a textbook case of too many cooks spoiling the broth.
Despite commanding monster forces far more powerful than those of humans, the Demon Lords' Crescent Alliance Army was repeatedly swept up by human schemes and sowing of discord, only to be defeated in detail. According to the game settings, there were even cases where the army disbanded on its own without humans lifting a finger. In any case, it was a pathetic tale.
"Because the Crescent Alliance expeditions kept failing, the Mountain Faction — which had numbered only a handful just a thousand years ago — rapidly grew into nearly a majority. In the seventh expedition a hundred and fifty years ago, there were even many Demon Lords who refused to deploy altogether."
"How unbecoming of a Demon Lord! …That's what I'd like to scold them for."
I smiled bitterly.
"When you weigh the costs against the benefits, it's the natural course of action."
"I think so too."
Lapis agreed, as naturally as any merchant would.
Why would anyone spend massive military resources to deploy when defeat was all but certain? And to be defeated not by the enemy but by one's own allies, at that. Even if a Demon Lord's primary duty was to lead the Demonkin into the Human Realm, there was a limit to pouring water into a bottomless barrel.
This wasn't the only problem.
Every time a Crescent Alliance expedition failed, the Demonkin — the species humans called monsters — suffered massive casualties. This, in turn, allowed the human species to rapidly expand their power. The Demon Lord alliance had effectively helped the humans.
The non-human races — elves, dwarves, and the like — who had backed the Crescent Alliance Army since a thousand years ago had also declared permanent neutrality within the last century. The Demon Lords were furious at the departure of the non-human races. However, they had no choice but to swallow their anger, since the reasoning behind it was sound: after the Crescent Alliance's defeats, the retaliatory war that humanity would launch would be realistically impossible to endure.
Because what the non-human races were arguing, translated bluntly, amounted to:
"You Demon Lords keep losing like idiots, and we're the ones who pay the price for nothing."
That was all there was to it.
Faced with the non-human races who had participated and sacrificed through the First Crescent Alliance Army all the way to the Seventh, the Demon Lords couldn't even bring themselves to lift their heads in shame. The ones who had failed were not the non-human races. It was the Demon Lords' side. They had brought defeat upon themselves and squandered the trust of the non-human races.
The Demon Lord army was depleted.
The Demonkin were gradually losing hope in their Demon Lords.
Even the allies who had supported the Demon Lord army in the Human Realm turned their backs.
For example, Ivar Lodbrok, president of the Kunkuska Trading Company, who had an individual scenario assigned in Dungeon Attack. She too grew disillusioned with the pointless Crescent Alliance expediences and ultimately betrayed the Demon Lords' side to side with the Hero. In the latter half of the game, the Demon Lords formed the Eighth Crescent Alliance Army for a final stand against the Hero, but that too ended in ruin due to internal strife within the Mountain Faction led by Paimon. The Crescent Alliance Army never once handed a victory to the Demon Lords' side — not a single time — until every last Demon Lord on the surface was annihilated.
In the end, the majority of modern Demon Lords had settled on a strategy of defending their home bases. The Mountain Faction did so willingly; the Plains Faction had no choice.
In other words—
"The Demon Lords of the Mountain Faction are fundamentally extremely passive."
No matter how many Demon Lords were mustered in that faction, they almost never deployed their armies.
"As the hearing made clear when Lord Paimon insisted on making a political challenge against Lord Dantalion, even when they do take the initiative, they do not resort to military force."
I grasped what Lapis was trying to say. I nodded.
"A political struggle is, by nature, a battle of justification. Just a short while ago, Paimon, the faction's de facto leader, was defeated by me. They've lost the pretext to attack me head-on. Unless a considerable amount of time passes, it's unlikely they'll deploy military force directly against me."
"I wholeheartedly agree. We still don't know for certain whether it was Belial or not, but... the reason Belial, ranked sixty-eighth, secretly supported the Leaf Adventure Party may very well fit into this same context."
Hmm.
So that was the situation.
The faction I was provisionally set against was the Demon Lord army's most powerful faction. If I fought them alone, I wouldn't last a single day before being crushed. However, they employed an extremely passive strategy and possessed no pretext whatsoever to attack me. Even if someone like Belial was itching to do me harm, they couldn't act on a scale large enough to leave evidence.
In short, there was no risk of me ending up in any real danger.
What a relief, what a relief.
Now I could just relax and slowly fortify my dungeon, couldn't I? Flatter Barbatos's Plains Faction here, ask the Neutral Faction's Marbas to mediate there, smash the enemy's schemes while repelling adventurers — and gradually expand my influence at a leisurely pace. Wouldn't everything work out just fine?
'No.'
I denied it flatly.
There had never been a time when I was naive enough to leave my enemies alone. If they touched me, I'd pay them back double. If I couldn't pay double, I'd leave it as interest and come back fourfold later. If I couldn't kill them, I'd leave them with a fatal wound; if I couldn't manage a fatal wound, I'd at least bite out a chunk of their waist. Tolerance was a luxury afforded only to the strong! A weakling could never show mercy to an enemy — you never knew when one you let go would grow strong enough to come back for revenge.
The enemies were passive?
'How generous of them.'
I laughed to myself.
If they wanted to play defense, I'd be more than happy to go on the offensive.
"……here, perhaps we should……"
"No, considering the Frank Empire's disposition……"
"Understood. If we aggressively spread the rumors……"
I discussed things at length with Lapis — what our course of action would be going forward. As a veteran player of Dungeon Attack, I possessed a massive amount of information. I knew the weaknesses of every faction in the Human Realm inside and out. For anything I wasn't sure about, I took Lapis's advice, and together we devised a strategy so perfect I was fully satisfied with it.
"……Lord Dantalion, you truly are a terrifying person."
After what felt like a marathon discussion, Lapis let out a sigh.
"No one else could have conceived such an elaborate scheme. Who would dare imagine that all of this originated from a single mind?"
"If it succeeds, that is."
"Someone like me could hardly guarantee that, but……"
Lapis looked me straight in the eye.
"I swear upon my two-hundred-year life. I am convinced that Lord Dantalion will succeed."
"That's reassuring. Well, I do think that nine times out of ten, the last one laughing will be me."
"Then I will return to the Demon Realm at once and begin executing the first operation."
Lapis rose to her feet and bowed to me with a graceful incline of her waist. Her Affinity had reached fifty, yet she remained as proper as ever. Her unwavering composure gave me an inexplicable sense of relief.
"By the way, Lord Dantalion. What shall you name this grand operation?"
An operation name.
I wasn't sure I needed one, but there was something appealing about playing along with Lapis's mood. I spoke the name that had come to mind.
"Let's call it Operation Minerva."
The scheme had begun.
The dungeon of Demon Lord Barbatos, the eighth-ranked — colloquially known as the "Palace of the Dead."
Barbatos sat upon her throne carved from boulders. As usual, she wore a thoroughly bored expression as she watched the undead monsters perform their little spectacles. Ever since she had become entangled with the Leaf Adventurer's Party, nothing remotely interesting had happened in her life.
"Ahhh — enough, enough."
She waved her hand dismissively, her voice flat with disinterest.
"Still boring, I see. Scram, all of you."
The undead monsters prostrated themselves on the floor in embarrassment. They slunk away, disappearing from Barbatos's line of sight. That reaction, and everything else about them, bored her to tears. Only alcohol and sex could dull her tedium even slightly, but today neither held any appeal.
In a palace where only Barbatos drew breath, she muttered to herself.
"Damn it. Maybe they didn't find the evidence…"
"Ngh," Barbatos groaned, clutching her head in both hands.
A full month had passed since she had watched the Leaf Adventurer's Party get destroyed before her very eyes. There had been no word of Dantalion making any moves whatsoever. She was restless. …Could it be they hadn't found the evidence after all? No, that couldn't be right. If he were that much of a fool, Paimon wouldn't have even bothered writing off her debt. Could he have lost his nerve and tucked his tail between his legs? He hadn't seemed like the cowardly type. Rank sixty-eight was still worth picking a fight with! If you're a man, show some backbone!
"Aagh, to hell with it. I don't know."
Barbatos heaved a sigh.
If Dantalion had found out nothing—or even if he had found something and still chose not to act—then it simply meant he was that kind of person. Not even worth Barbatos's expectations.
She would use any means necessary to achieve her goals.
Which meant betrayal was second nature to her.
And being betrayed was just as familiar.
"……."
She brushed her white hair back with one hand.
'…Same old story again, isn't it.'
Nothing new, Barbatos muttered to herself—as if speaking to no one but her own ears.
"Ugh, well then I guess I just have to sit around waiting for some useful bastard to show up……"
"Barbatos—Your Excellency—Barbatos—Your Excellencyyyyy—."
A dreary voice echoed through the Demon Lord's chamber.
Right after, a pale, whitish ghost surged up from the floor—right in front of Barbatos's feet, no less. She had been lost in regret, and the sudden appearance startled her.
"Ngh—oh, for fuck's sake!"
"Your Excellency—I have something to report—."
"You filthy wretch, I ought to shove a skewer up your ass and straight through your duodenum and it still wouldn't be enough!"
She roared at the top of her lungs.
"Did I or did I not tell you to come through the front gate with some goddamn courtesy when you want an audience with me!? Shit—I've been telling you for five hundred years until the grime caked on those filthy ears of yours piled up into a goddamn mountain range! You'd think you'd have gotten it by now!"
"My deepest apologies—I have something to report—."
"What is it, damn you! It better not be nothing, because this time I will absolutely grant you eternal rest!
"That—that is—that is—."
Barbatos pressed a hand to his flat chest. Ahh, my heart nearly dropped out. Sure, he was one of those Supreme Demon Lords who could survive even if his heart did drop out, but it still wasn't exactly a pleasant feeling. Barbatos, who had in fact once had his heart pierced through by the Hero during the Third Crescent Alliance Army Expedition, could attest to that more than anyone.
However, once the words delivered by the phantom messenger reached his ears, Barbatos could no longer care about the sensation of his heart plummeting.
"Dantalion—His Majesty—has arrived—."
What?
Barbatos froze.
"Dantalion came here?"