For once, the Demon Lords held a gathering on the continent. There was a rather special meaning behind it.
Whether it was a political assembly or a simple banquet, the Demon Lords always met in a neutral city of the Demon Realm. The one to lead the gathering was always the head of the Neutral Faction. High-ranking Demon Lords and low-ranking alike met as equal sovereigns in neutral territory... This meaning was powerfully embedded in the tradition.
Even Bael had never broken this unspoken agreement. But now, with the Great Demon Lord dead, this age-old custom had been casually discarded.
Inside a swaying carriage.
"How long do you intend to tolerate 'that man's' abuses?"
A bald man with dark skin spoke nervously.
The sixth-ranked—no, the former sixth-ranked Demon Lord, Valefor. He was in an unpleasant mood because the carriage was shaking more than he had expected. Though, truth be told, that wasn't the only reason for his displeasure.
"I couldn't care less whether Bael dies or Agares dies. But what about our rights? Where has the tradition of the gathering disappeared to?"
"Well, now. The moment Bael and Agares vanished, the rights of the past already lost their meaning."
Gamigin answered in a sugary voice.
"When the net disappears, the fish are bound to thrash about in the sea. Where artificial rights disappear, natural rights will inevitably rear their heads in all their majesty once more."
"...I never knew Gamigin had an interest in political philosophy. What do you mean?"
"The victor claims everything. Isn't that the natural right of us demons?"
Valefor's black face contorted.
"That hulking brute a victor! I'll grant that his tongue is clever enough, but he's nothing more than a ruffian who throws his weight around by borrowing Barbatos's prestige!"
"That's right, that's right. What an unlucky fellow~."
Gamigin chimed in with perfunctory agreement.
She found the man before her amusing, yet pitiable at the same time. Still. Most of the Demon Lords still had no idea what kind of person Dantalion really was. Or perhaps they knew but deliberately chose to ignore it.
The world's assessment of Dantalion amounted to little more than "a capable partner of Barbatos." It was certainly an improvement over the reputation of being "a leftover subordinate of the Plains Faction," but it still wasn't enough......
People saw Dantalion as a kind of spokesperson who stepped forward to announce and instigate on behalf of the Plains Faction, Mountain Faction, and Neutral Faction. Perhaps "propaganda chief" would be a better term.
"I just can't make heads or tails of it. I can understand Barbatos, sure. And Paimon, well, I suppose he might owe a favor, so I get that. But why would someone like Marbas be backing Dantalion?"
"How would I know what's going on over there?"
"Damn it."
Their premise was completely off.
Dantalion wasn't merely the new Demon Lord army's figurehead. The new Demon Lord army itself was an apparatus that moved according to Dantalion's intentions.
If one were to ask whether Dantalion was the leader of the Demon Lord army, Gamigin would tilt her head.
If Dantalion were the leader, then the one who gained the most from the last war should have been Dantalion as well. But Dantalion hadn't taken any profit at all.
He didn't acquire more territory, nor did he obtain any plunder. Only his political reputation rose. The ones who actually monopolized the gains were the Demon Lords of the Plains Faction, Mountain Faction, and so on.
Could it be that Dantalion was some kind of saint, devoid of any greed?
'...Yeah, right.'
Gamigin found the thought amusing even as she considered it. In any case, it was strange.
Because of circumstances like these, many people looked down on Dantalion. He was nothing more than a pretty face, and the ones actually pulling the strings of the Demon Lord army were the upper echelon Demon Lords...
Just judging from the current conversation, that was clearly the case.
"So, what's on the agenda for this meeting? I haven't heard a word about it."
"Sorry, but I'm completely in the dark."
"Hah. To not even inform you... that shameless fellow..."
Gamigin laughed inwardly.
'It's not like I'm exactly on your side, you know.'
She skillfully put on an expression while casting a subtle glance beyond the window.
The carriage cut through the village. Swiftly, as though the village just happened to be sitting on the road it was traveling. The carriage was escorted by a column of cavalry. Village children scrambled to the edge of the road.
The children watched the cavalry's disciplined march with dogged fascination, even as they flinched from the fear of a horse hoof spraying dirt right in front of their eyes. One child saluted the banner. A cavalryman returned the gesture — but only toward the banner itself.
The banner fluttered as though it knew exactly where it was headed, and as though it were promising to take you all there, too.
Like every promise, the banner swept past the village and vanished in an instant. All that remained was a thin cloud of dust. The children charged into the dust cloud, still running.
'But in the end—'
Gamigin watched the shadow play unfolding within the dust cloud, her eyes devoid of emotion.
'Dantalion won't be on anyone's side.'
"Lord Gamigin! Lord Valefor, this way!"
The Tiger Tribe attendant bellowed. Valefor's lip twitched.
Two Demon Lords set foot in the imperial palace of the Habsburg Empire. For unaffiliated Demon Lords such as themselves, it was a humiliating affair.
The Demon Lords who actually ruled the Empire belonged to the Neutral Faction and the Mountain Faction — and among them, the Plains Faction. The majority of unaffiliated Demon Lords had no ties to the Empire. The imperial palace was a far cry from a strictly neutral zone.
Yet Dantalion had unilaterally decided on the palace as the meeting place.
Behind that insolent decision lay a clear intention.
— Submit to the new Demon Lord army, or resist. Choose one of the two.
It was a provocative ultimatum disguised as a choice.
Of course, all the Demon Lords had already bowed their heads to the new Demon Lord army. But Dantalion wanted to drive that submission home as a clear, official fact.
Each Demon Lord was permitted an escort of merely fifteen men. In practice, they had been disarmed and stripped bare before being invited into the imperial capital. There was no guarantee they would not be assassinated in the city — not that such a thing was likely to happen, but still.
The unaffiliated Demon Lords gnashed their teeth.
"Just because we bent the waist does not mean we deserve this kind of treatment."
"Subjects of their caliber, playing faction games as though we are pawns…!"
"We need to cooperate with each other as well."
They were originally types who loathed politics and refused to join any faction. But with the threat bearing down on them, they had no choice but to cooperate whether they liked it or not.
The Demon Lord who had become the focal point of this gathering was none other than Gamigin.
"Oh my. Lady Gamigin, you've arrived."
"Your beauty seems to bloom more with each passing day, Lady Gamigin."
Several Demon Lords who had arrived at the grand hall beforehand approached Gamigin with familiar, friendly airs. Gamigin beamed as she exchanged greetings with them.
Dantalion deliberately led the other Demon Lords into misunderstanding. For instance, at a masquerade ball, he would openly praise Barbatos instead of Gamigin. During the Puppet War, he would entrust only Gamigin with a special detachment, granting her independent operational authority…
On the surface, Dantalion and Gamigin appeared to share a deep bond, yet that relationship was surprisingly precarious—so unstable it could collapse at any moment.
Why was Dantalion putting on an act as though he were feuding with Gamigin?
*'He must mean for me to control and manipulate the unaffiliated Demon Lords on his behalf.'*
Gamigin smiled as the thought crossed her mind.
At first, she had simply believed that Dantalion regarded her as a woman inferior to Barbatos, and she had seethed with fury deep inside. But watching the unaffiliated Demon Lords gradually coalesce around her, she came to realize the truth.
—*He was aiming for this.*
Among the Demon Lord army, there were quite a few unaffiliated Demon Lords harboring grievances toward Dantalion, such as Valefor. They naturally began to hover around Gamigin. Their number reached about six or seven. It wasn't a large group, but it was by no means one to be dismissed.
*'What Dantalion fears most isn't a group—it's the unpredictable actions of individual Demon Lords.'*
Belonging to a group restrains the individual by its very nature.
Promises made between individuals are easily broken. But tearing apart a treaty between two groups is far more difficult. Dantalion wanted to bind the unaffiliated Demon Lords into a single group, and he had maneuvered to make Gamigin its representative.
Gamigin smiled softly.
*'He's out of his mind.'*
Deliberately gathering hostile elements around himself. This was not a scheme that any person of sound mind could have conceived.
Only someone with absolute confidence would pull off such a mad stunt. No matter how many of you band together to resist as a group, he had the confidence that he could control it all.
Among the unaffiliated Demon Lords, only a tiny handful noticed this.
One of them was the former third-ranked Demon Lord Vassago. Despite being the most powerful of the unaffiliated Demon Lords, he had long refused to join any faction. He looked down on the other Demon Lords with the gaze of someone staring at foolish insects.
"I have no intention of voluntarily playing with puppets."
That was the only advice Vassago had offered his fellows.
The other was the former seventh-ranked Amon. She took a thorough stance of non-involvement and distanced herself from her companions. The unaffiliated Demon Lords criticized the two for being selfish and irresponsible, but to anyone who understood the situation, it was an exceptionally shrewd way to play things.
Even now, Vassago stood alone on the far side of the throne hall. When Gamigin caught his eye, Vassago quietly curled the corner of his lips upward. Gamigin felt distinctly annoyed but showed no sign of it.
"His Imperial Majesty the Emperor, sovereign of the great Habsburg Empire and its sole ruler, graces us with his presence!"
As soon as all the Demon Lords had gathered, an attendant cried out as if he had been waiting for exactly this moment.
Emperor Rudolf, dressed in resplendent golden robes, strode in and took his seat on the throne. Flanking him, as a matter of course, stood Barbatos and Dantalion.
Some of the Demon Lords quietly grumbled.
"He's just a puppet Emperor anyway—why go through with all these formalities…"
"I can't understand why a human Emperor is even crashing our assembly in the first place."
"What on earth are they thinking!"
It was an uncomfortable arrangement. The throne was positioned slightly elevated, and naturally, Barbatos and Dantalion ended up looking down on everyone else. It went against the long-held tradition of emphasizing equality among the Demon Lords.
Whether they heard the Demon Lords' murmurs or not, Dantalion calmly opened his mouth.
"The reason I have gathered you all today is to thoroughly revisit the matter of distributing credit and rewards."
"Distributing credit and rewards?"
Vassago furrowed his brow.
"Didn't we already divide everything fairly back in Niflheim?"
"That was the share distributed in the Demon Realm, as Demon Lords. The portion we are entitled to as members of the Empire, however, still remains undetermined."
"……I don't recall ever becoming a member of the Empire, though?"
Vassago spoke with a vaguely uneasy expression on his face.
Dantalion shook his head.
"From this point forward, the Demon Lord army and the Habsburg Empire must act as one body. To that end, today in this gathering, we will thoroughly reassess merits and demerits to firmly establish each of your ranks within the Empire."
"……."
Vassago was at a loss for words.
Reestablishing the ranks.
For the unaffiliated Demon Lords who had no merits to speak of—unlike the members of any faction—this declaration was nothing short of a bolt from the blue.