Chapter 144 - The Demon King Feels So Wronged

"... Who disappeared?"

Louise Berft’s disappearance became known immediately after her abduction.

"There was a tremendous noise and shaking at the detached palace where Her Highness is staying. The knights guarding the palace investigated, but Her Highness was nowhere to be found. Only signs of a fierce battle remained."

"Do you call that an explanation? Find her at once! At once!"

The royal guard mobilized. They discovered a secret passage not far from the battlefield.

"A secret passage? After Logger Fridri disappeared, didn’t you find and seal every last passage in the capital?"

"We sealed the vast majority, but we could not be entirely..."

"Are you playing games with me?"

The dwarves trembled before the king’s fury. The knights hurried to investigate the passage.

"There are signs of entry, but none of departure. The culprit must still be inside."

"And if they simply left through another passage? If there was one, what says there couldn’t be two?"

"... Well..."

"Find them at once! If you fail to bring the princess and the bastard who abducted her before me, I will leave the consequences to your imagination."

"As you command!"

But the trouble did not end there. As the soldiers guarding the royal castle left in droves to join the search, something happened elsewhere.

"Your Majesty! The royal workshop is on fire!"

"... What? How is that possible? Do you know how many spells are inscribed on that workshop?"

A workshop dealt primarily with fire, so its fire precautions were particularly thorough. But if every protective device they had installed had been destroyed by a Demon King, it was hardly impossible.

"The craftsmen! What happened to the craftsmen?"

"The thirty-two craftsmen who were away are safe, but..."

"Give me a proper report!"

"Forty-nine craftsmen are unaccounted for."

"... Are you saying they burned to death?"

"No, Your Majesty! When someone burns to death, some remains are bound to be left behind. Yet we could find no trace of the craftsmen anywhere in the half-burned workshop."

"Then that means..."

"The craftsmen could hardly have set the fire themselves and left the workshop, so..."

The minister delivering the report swallowed the rest of his words. The corners of the king’s eyes were twitching.

"They were abducted?"

"That is our assessment."

"The princess as well?"

"... Yes."

In an instant, his precious daughter and the kingdom’s finest craftsmen had disappeared—no, been abducted. For a moment, the king’s vision swam, but he forced himself to remain calm.

"Immediately restrict all entry to and departure from the capital and declare a state of emergency. And find the abductor without fail."

The capital’s entire military force was mobilized. Almost every soldier, save for the royal knights protecting the king and his palace.

After hastily issuing his orders, the king convened a meeting with his ministers.

"Who do you believe is responsible?"

"... I suspect humans."

"Indeed. The abduction of the craftsmen is proof. This is hardly the first time humans have done something out of greed for our technology."

That was the most plausible explanation. The question was which nation those humans belonged to, and...

"There is a traitor who has sold out our people. Here in the capital, no less."

"A traitor, Your Majesty?"

"Both the princess and the royal workshop are in the capital. Do you think humans could dare come and go freely here without my permission? Not unless someone deliberately concealed them. And does it make sense that dozens of craftsmen vanished without a trace, without a single witness?"

"Ah...!"

The ministers exclaimed. Indeed, that made no sense.

An awkward silence fell. The king’s reasoning was sound, but it required one further condition: the traitor had to wield considerable power even within the capital.

They began watching one another warily. Then one minister raised an objection.

"But Your Highness, even the princess was abducted. Surely humans have no reason to abduct Her Highness?"

Anyone who knew how dearly Berft’s king cherished his daughter, in particular, would know that doing so meant crossing a point of no return.

"They abducted dozens of craftsmen. That alone means they gave no thought to the consequences."

"Would humans do something so foolish? We need only promise equipment to their neighbors, and they would find themselves attacked from all sides."

"... That is certainly true."

The king and his ministers sank deeper into thought.

"Perhaps a Demon King is responsible."

"A Demon King? Why would a Demon King abduct craftsmen?"

Demon Kings strengthened their towers using the mysterious power the towers possessed. They had no need to borrow the dwarves’ abilities.

That was common knowledge. But...

"What if it is for something other than a tower?"

"Something else?"

"Recently, in the Seratin Islands..."

"Ah...!"

"Besides, has she not already had her tail cut off while attempting to abduct Her Highness?"

"Even so, would a Demon King who subsequently suffered so badly at the hands of a raiding party really try again...?"

Then news arrived that clinched their suspicions.

"Your Majesty! The hero Verding has found faint traces of demonic energy at the princess’s detached palace!"

A Demon King had abducted the princess and the craftsmen.

* * *

Vivian Blunt.

After conquering a dimension, her arrogance had reached the heavens, only to run up against the enormous wall that was the dimension of Arain.

Her repeated attempts had ended in failure, and she had suffered the humiliation of being threatened by a fellow Demon King.

Yet she had been unable to explode as her temper demanded, because every word that Demon King said was true.

'A crazy dimension with over four thousand heroes! If I’d known, I would never have come to a place like this!'

She lamented her own arrogance. She had assumed the other Demon Kings were simply inferior, and that this dimension was perfectly suited to someone who had already conquered one.

And then there was Grand Duke Alkain, who had deceived her with honeyed words and shoved her into this damned place.

'That damned vampire. I should have known when he was so friendly.'

She should have ripped out that glib tongue that had promised her such enormous rewards.

Not that she could actually have done so, of course.

"Still, I’ve managed to salvage things somehow, haven’t I? I’m alive, and I’m steadily building my power. Yes, that’s what matters. That..."

As she savored a refreshing Shine Muscat grape, her gaze drifted downward and stopped.

"... My tail."

She could never get used to the absence of something that ought to be there.

"My tail..."

Tears streamed down her face. The wound still ached. Of course, it would eventually grow back and return to normal, but when would that be?

A hundred years? Two hundred?

A succubus’s tail, another reservoir for demonic energy, was not mere hair that would grow readily with the passage of time.

"That damned bastard. I swear I’ll have my revenge..."

She vowed to make him a slave and leave him panting at her feet. Someday, without fail.

"Ah."

She opened her mouth, hoping to soothe her irritation.

"Here you are. Hehe."

A sweet piece of fruit slipped into her mouth.

"Sweet."

"These are the finest Shine Muscat grapes from southern Hessen. I procured them personally, especially for you, Lady Vivian."

He called it procurement, but it was piracy. Neither the speaker nor the recipient cared.

"Um, Lady Vivian."

"When did I give you permission to speak?"

"S-sorry!"

The pirate serving as her footrest slammed his head against the floor.

"What is it? Go on."

"Thank you for your mercy. The Altring faction has been making troubling moves lately."

"Altring..."

"The largest alliance in the Seratin Islands, with eighty pirate crews under its banner."

"What about them?"

"... They’ve been doing this from the beginning, but they call us... for siding with mere demons—of course, I mean no disrespect to you, Lady Vivian. It’s just those insolent scum..."

"I know. Continue."

"Yes. They denounce us as traitors who have colluded with demons. Judging by their movements, a war may break out."

"They intend to wage war because I’m a demon?"

"It’s all a cowardly excuse. Surely they just want to crush us before our growing power becomes too great?"

"Hmm."

Vivian propped her chin on her hand and pondered.

After her successive failures, she had personally stepped forward to do what a succubus did best.

Once someone fell under her charm, they could not escape, whether or not they knew she was a demon. It was the stickiest of traps, and her greatest weapon.

Fortunately, approaching them had been easy. Arain’s humans were familiar enough with demons to make secret pacts with them, but that was especially true in the pirate-controlled Seratin Islands.

These people, who could be called the very heart of evil, made their living through drug distribution, smuggling, human trafficking, and piracy. They did not discriminate against demons.

To them, their own lives came first. Second was whether someone was useful to them.

Thus Vivian had contacted the pirates and slowly expanded her power. Sometimes she seduced them alone; sometimes she sent out her succubi, turning them into her lackeys.

Like the man kneeling before her as a footrest, the man fanning her at her side, and the man who automatically fed her fruit whenever she opened her mouth.

All were pirates who had become her slaves through her succubus powers, and influential figures in the Seratin Islands.

Heroes were no different. The heroes in the pirate islands were all thugs who had defied the guild’s orders and deserted.

Heroes were supposed to kill demons, but these were exceptions.

For instance, the footrest currently delivering his report was both a pirate captain and a hero.

She had been utterly dumbfounded when a man who supposedly bore the title of hero had blathered that he would even lick the soles of her feet.

"Could you win if war broke out?"

Her thoughts returned to the matter at hand.

Her forces were still insignificant compared to the Seratin Islands as a whole, and it was only natural that others would move to keep them in check.

"We may be at a disadvantage in strength, but do you know who I am? I’m the captain of the Black Eyepatch Pirates!"

"And you have me! Our Waterfall Beard Pirates will sweep away those Altring scum!"

"I...!"

The three pirate captains enthralled by Vivian began competing to prove their loyalty.

But they were merely spouting pretty words under her charm. The fact that they could not win remained unchanged.

She was about to let out a sigh when it happened.

KNOCK KNOCK

"Lady Vivian."

Before she could even tell her to enter, a succubus hurriedly opened the door and came in. Vivian frowned.

"I believe I told you not to enter until I called?"

"Demon King Jason is contacting you. He says to answer immediately..."

"Why?"

"He says he will tell you himself. But he was quite angry."

"Angry? Why?"

She was staying quietly in the Seratin Islands, just as he’d told her to.

"Everyone, leave."

At her gesture, the pirates and the succubus left. Vivian took the communication orb and infused it with demonic energy.

"What is it this time?"

『What is it? Do you simply say whatever you please because you have a mouth?』

The harsh words from the very outset made his anger clear. And, absurdly enough, that anger was unmistakably directed at Vivian.

"What? What did I do?"

But this time, she had a defense. She had done nothing.

『I distinctly told you to stay quiet and, above all, leave the dwarves alone.』

『And yet you stir up trouble again after so little time? Are you incapable of thought?』

"... What nonsense is that? I went after dwarves? Me?"

Vivian thought for a moment. Was the man who had been fanning her a dwarf? No. Then the footrest? No, not him either. The one feeding her Shine Muscat grapes? Of course not.

'Then, recently...'

Had there been a dwarf?

Of course, there were some abducted dwarves in the Pirate Archipelago. But Vivian, at least, had never laid a hand on one.

She could swear that before the great first Demon Emperor.

"I don’t know what happened on the continent or what trouble it caused, but I assure you, it wasn’t me."

『Your excuses are utterly disgraceful.』

『I cannot help despairing at your one-dimensional mind, thinking that merely denying something will make an established fact disappear.』

"No, what the—!"

『The dwarves’ Second Princess, Louise Berft, has been abducted.』

『Along with forty-nine craftsmen from the royal workshop.』

"... What? Louise Berft..."

『The very princess you desperately tried to abduct, only to have your tail cut off and flee in disgrace.』

She remembered that brutish axe. And those awe-inspiring muscles bulging through her clothes. That bitch was closer to a barbarian than a princess.

"That bitch was abducted? Serves her right. But let me be clear: it wasn’t me."

『You should only make such excuses when there is at least some chance they could be true, Lady Vivian.』

"What nonsense! I haven’t left the Seratin Islands since that day!"

『Then tell that to the dwarves who will soon be aiming their cannons at you, not me. Though I cannot say whether they will believe you.』

"... What?"

『How do you think I learned of this? The dwarves issued a statement.』

『Many nations desire cooperation with the dwarves. Many covet their superior technology. If the dwarves offer a vast reward for your destruction, more than a few nations will step forward.』

"No, wait. They declared war on me? Why? It wasn’t me!"

『Demonic energy was discovered where the princess was abducted.』

『Forty-nine dwarven craftsmen were abducted with her.』

"And that has to mean me? There are five Demon Kings! Why me?"

『Because you have already attempted to abduct the dwarven princess. And having your tail cut off would only have made your desire for vengeance reach the heavens.』

『Am I wrong?』

"Well..."

Of course it had. Did he have any idea how precious a succubus’s tail was?

『And no Demon King abducts dwarven craftsmen. Demon Kings can use their towers’ powers, so they have no reason to do so.』

『Even if they found a use for them, the benefits would hardly justify antagonizing the dwarven kingdom.』

"I’m a Demon King too. Why would I be any different...?"

『Except for you, engrossed in playing pirate with the pirates of the Seratin Islands.』

『Surely you know that pirates are desperate to abduct dwarven engineers so they can mount mana cannons on their ships. You knew that yourself when you abducted them.』

"..."

『You made far too little effort to conceal the fact that you are a Demon King. That may not have mattered to the pirates, but the continent is another matter.』

『Through all this reasoning, the dwarven kingdom has identified you as the culprit.』

『A large-scale hero’s journey will be launched against your tower, and I intend to do nothing, just as before.』

『If I may offer one piece of advice, even now, you should return the abducted princess and craftsmen—』

"No!"

Vivian shouted.

Her pallid face held none of even the faint traces of sensuality and elegance that had remained.

"It wasn’t me!"

Her vision blurred.

"Do I look like an idiot to you? Like I’m stupid enough to go after them again after getting hurt so badly?"

『By any reasonable inference, you are indeed a fool. For instance, you ignored my advice and attempted to abduct the dwarven princess. Therefore, there is ample possibility that you acted again without considering the consequences—』

"No!"

Truly.

"I didn’t do anything this time. I didn’t..."

Her voice broke with tears.

"I swear by the great first Demon Emperor and the Guide..."

Great, fat tears fell without end.