Chapter 149 - Do What?

Logger opened his eyes to a dizzying pain in his head. His gaze met a pair of red eyes shining in the darkness. He involuntarily caught his breath. A chill ran down the back of his neck.

“P-Princess!”

“If you're awake, why aren't you on your feet?”

“I'm up!”

“Attention.”

“Attention!”

“What am I going to do with you?”

Logger racked his brains desperately. Louise had been abducted by the Demon King. If she could now stand here calmly talking to him on the tower's second floor...

'He persuaded her?'

Like the other princesses?

'How on earth? He should change his title from the Demon King of Hellfire to the Demon King of Swindlers!'

“Ahaha... You've already heard everything, haven't you? I didn't actually run away from you, Princess. I was abducted...”

“Yes, so I heard. No wonder I couldn't find you, however hard I searched, with you holed up here. Right?”

“O-Of course. I wanted nothing more than to return to you, Princess, but that wicked Demon King simply wouldn't...”

“And that's why you said you wouldn't make anything for a brat like me?”

“I-I swear I never said anything of the sort!”

Louise snorted. That wasn't particularly important, anyway.

“Honestly, when I think of everything I went through because of you, I want to kill you right now.”

“E-Eek...! It was all the Demon King's fault! I've done nothing wrong!”

“Have you really?”

“I'm innocent!”

“What about the humiliation you caused me when you came back to the workshop with the Demon King?”

“I-I didn't do anything then!”

“You said ‘sword.’ While the Demon King and I were fighting. You distracted me, and thanks to that, he landed a good hit. None of this would have happened otherwise!” The Demon King wouldn't have escaped, and you'd have been back in my clutches. “There was a bomb strapped to my neck!” “So? Having a bomb on you makes it all right to lure the princess you served into a trap?”

“O-Of course that's not what I mean... And it was an axe... Though it did look like a sword because it wasn't finished.” By the end, his voice had dwindled to a barely audible murmur.

By the end, his voice had dwindled to a barely audible murmur.

“Does that matter?”

“... No, it doesn't.”

THWACK!

Logger flew through the air, hurtling dozens of meters backward before slamming into the wall.

“Aaaargh!”

He rolled across the floor.

“Stop exaggerating and get up.”

“Yes!”

He wasn't exaggerating. It was just that the murderous intent pouring over him was even more frightening.

Louise lightly dusted off her hands.

“If the Demon King hadn't told me to leave you in one piece, this wouldn't have been the end of it.”

“Thank you!”

“Instead, what you have to do now is simple. Persuade them.”

Logger's gaze followed her hand. She was pointing at forty-nine ice statues.

“For the time being, I'm in the same boat as you.”

“Wouldn't they obey if you simply threa—no, asked them, Princess?”

Naturally, if they didn't want to die.

“They'd pretend to obey, sure. But that's all, isn't it? I want them to do their best. That way, I'll have something to bargain with when I talk to the Demon King.”

She couldn't get out of this for ten years, anyway. Besides, the craftsmen's loyalty wasn't to Louise in the first place. It was to the king and her older brother.

“Make them go wild.”

“Over the golem?”

“Yes. With that wonderful blueprint of yours.”

There was no surer way to persuade dwarven craftsmen than to show them just how extraordinary the thing they would build was.

“Of course, that was how I intended to persuade them, but...”

“Why the qualification?”

“Could I be their leader...? I've been in the tower the longest, after all.”

“Work that out yourself.”

“Yes!”

Logger nodded vigorously.

* * *

『I'm disappointed. How could you do this?』

Berge had given Ernyan a communication orb when he sent her back to Hilderan. He hadn't expected her to contact him so soon, though—and spout such vague nonsense.

“What are you talking about?”

『I asked you to take care of the Four Heavenly Kings, my lord. And you said you would.』

“And?”

『Then why Louise Berft?』

“No, wait. How did you hear about that?”

『It's only natural for the Four Heavenly Kings to keep in touch, isn't it?』

Well, well.

“Fine, let's say it is. Is there a problem?”

『Many. A great many. The Heavenly King I asked for was specifically the ‘Giant of Hell.’』

“Yes. Didn't I ask you to find a physically powerful princess? Louise Berft's physical abilities are top-class. She'd eat most heroes alive, never mind other princesses.”

『I know that. But Louise Berft is small! She's not the Giant of Hell, she's the Little Person of Hell!』

“Say that to her face and she'll throw an axe at you.”

『She'd like it, actually. Dwarves consider being small a virtue.』

“Information I had no particular desire to learn. I'm hanging up.”

『Oh, my lord, just... wait...』

Unbelievable.

Having cut off the pointless call, Berge clicked his tongue and considered his next task.

Most of the urgent matters had been resolved. He had secured the craftsmen and brought back all the materials currently gathered at the trading company. He had also sent Jetoson a valuable by-product, so the merchant should be able to obtain everything they needed.

'Then the problem now is...'

Vivian Blunt. A pathetic Demon King who had discarded all her dignity and pride as a Demon King in order to survive.

'A servant, huh.'

At the time of their call, he had decided to simply accept her offer. He hadn't thought he had anything to lose. But the more he considered it, the more problems occurred to him.

'Looking only at Arain itself, there's no major problem.'

Taking a Demon King who would soon die anyway as his servant was hardly a disgrace. People might be a little surprised that it was a fellow Demon King, but it was perfectly natural for a Demon King to take demons into his service.

'Besides, Vivian has already floated the idea to the other Demon Kings.'

They would consider Vivian an unusual demon. There would be no particular blame directed at Berge.

Outside Arain, however, it was another matter.

The tower. And the office of Demon King.

What happened to a tower when its master, the Demon King, became someone else's servant? And what happened to that Demon King's office?

A Demon King was no ordinary demon. They were a vanguard commander and a commander formally dispatched from the Demon Realm to a lower dimension.

If he took Vivian Blunt into his service, would Grand Duke Alkain stand idly by, however voluntary her decision might have been?

'Strictly speaking, there's no reason to prevent a demon from voluntarily becoming another demon's servant...'

The problem was that Grand Duke Alkain had firmly branded Berge a troublemaker. If he found even the slightest pretext, he might latch onto it relentlessly.

'No, Grand Duke Alkain has no way of knowing about the servant bond itself.'

The problem was the tower. Whether a Demon King was dead was determined by whether their tower returned to the Demon Realm. When a tower returned, the higher-ups concluded that its Demon King had died.

In other words, the question was whether Vivian's tower would remain as it was when he took her as his servant, or whether it would return to the Demon Realm.

'It'll be a problem if it stays, and a different problem if it returns.'

The more he thought about it, the more he questioned whether this was the right choice.

'Still, I should at least go visit.'

Speaking out of both sides of one's mouth might be a desirable virtue in a demon, but having sworn to a fellow Demon King on the first Demon Emperor and the Guide, he at least needed to make a show of trying.

If Vivian spread unnecessary rumors before she died, his reputation among the Demon Kings would plummet endlessly, souring his relationships. Especially his relationship with Reina Sordein, who valued honor.

* * *

“Welcome!”

The Tower of Carnal Desire stood on one of the countless uninhabited islands of the Seratin Islands, better known as the Pirate Islands. Yet it wasn't particularly well hidden among the islands, either, leaving it in an awkward location.

Berge had heard that visits from raiding parties had given her considerable trouble, but it looked reasonably tidy now.

'Succubi, incubi, a few vampires, and the rest are all demonic creatures.'

Succubi were especially numerous.

He followed Vivian, who had come to greet him at the entrance, to her office on the tower's fifth floor.

“... What are you doing?”

She had looked somewhat excited, and the moment they were alone, she dropped to her knees.

“Hurry up and take me as your servant.”

“I never said I would take you as my servant.”

“What? Are you saying you'll break your oath on the first Demon Emperor and the Guide?”

“All I promised was to visit your tower. And now I've kept that promise.”

“My subordinates and I would be quite useful, you know?”

“Perhaps.”

Succubi and incubi shone more in espionage than in combat. Using their beautiful or handsome appearances, they naturally approached targets with honey traps, enticing them with sensual seduction to extract information.

The seduction of demons whose specialty was lust was like a swamp: once you fell in, it was hard to escape.

But that applied in other dimensions—dimensions with so few heroes that encounters were rare.

Why had she been driven this far into a corner in the first place? There were various reasons, but ultimately, wasn't it because she couldn't exploit any of a succubus's advantages? There were over three thousand heroes, and their numbers were increasing even at this very moment.

“You've changed your mind now?”

“I never fully made up my mind in the first place.”

“I-I laid everything bare! I held nothing back!”

“That's why I came. There's one thing I want to check.”

“Check?”

“Let's step outside first.”

Berge left the office before Vivian could reply.

“What are you going to do?”

“There are two hurdles to clear before I can take you as my servant.”

“Right. Your willingness and mine. But we're both certain, so haven't we cleared them already?”

“Your head really is full of flowers.”

“You just insulted me, didn't you?”

“One is the other Demon Kings. The other is the higher-ups, including Grand Duke Alkain.”

“If I'm volunteering to become your servant, why does that have to be a problem?”

“It wouldn't matter to you. The problem is the tower. What happens to it if you, the Demon King bound to it, become my servant?”

“I don't think anything would change.”

“Nothing would change?”

“Becoming your servant doesn't mean I'm no longer a Demon King, does it?”

“...”

That was true, too. Still, it couldn't hurt to check first.

Berge approached the throne. He sat in the seat prepared for the tower's master. No, he tried to.

—!

A powerful repulsive force pushed him away.

[Only the tower's master may approach.]

A warning sound passed through his mind.

“So that's what it feels like.”

Come to think of it, blocking other Demon Kings from approaching was the most basic security measure.

Berge pushed back the repulsive force with demonic energy. He sat on the throne, closed his eyes, and infiltrated the tower's system.

[Warning! An unauthorized individual has infiltrated the tower's system!]

[Warning! Activating defense mechanisms.]

At that instant—

RUMBLE!

The tower shook. Resistance stronger than before slammed into Berge's body.

[Destroying the intruder's mind.]

COUGH!

Berge coughed up blood and pulled away from the throne. Had he not left it, the furious demonic energy burrowing into his mind would have burned his brain to a crisp.

“Uh, I don't know what you were trying to do, but I think you'd better not.”

“... For once, you're saying something sensible.”

“And if you're trying to check how the tower's system works, couldn't you just check your own instead of doing this here?”

“...”

Huh?

* * *

She was right. Every Demon King had a tower, and Berge could examine the tower's system in his own.

'Why didn't I think of that?'

If he were to offer even a small excuse, it was probably because he had been too focused on Vivian Blunt and her tower.

[You do not have permission.]

Much of the tower's power was concealed. Fortunately, however, Berge managed to find the part he wanted. Returning the tower to the Demon Realm was one of its most basic systems, after all.

'Unless the Demon King dies, the tower will not return to the Demon Realm.'

'If the tower's core receives an impact beyond a certain threshold, it will be forcibly returned to the Demon Realm.'

Even if Vivian became Berge's servant, her tower wouldn't go to the Demon Realm. And even if Vivian didn't die, a human attack on the tower could send it back. It was simply that no such case had occurred before.

'Then the tower will remain, and there won't be any major problem even if Vivian leaves it vacant.'

The downside was that Vivian would have to live in seclusion, officially considered dead, but that wasn't Berge's concern.

Thus, when he returned to the Tower of Carnal Desire, he decided to accept Vivian.

“Good decision!”

“I won't permit that insolent tone from now on.”

“I'm still a Demon King, you know.”

“Now you're my servant.”

“... But I'm still a Demon King.”

“Well, whatever. Kneel.”

Vivian knelt and bowed her head. Berge placed a hand on it.

An immense surge of demonic energy erupted, reaching into her body, her demonic energy, and the essence deeper still.

Berge's demonic energy revealed its savagery as it tore through Vivian's body and devoured her energy. Vivian did not resist.

Then—

“Ghhh...”

She stifled a groan at the pain that felt as though her brain were on fire.

A servant contract between demons bound the soul into subservience. Even if the demon had no intention of resisting, the higher stature of a powerful demon's soul made it resist naturally.

Longing for freedom was an instinct of living beings. The resulting shock and pain had to be endured entirely by the demon in question.

After a long while—

“Phaaah...!”

When the final mark was inscribed, she released the breath she had been holding. The shackles on her soul bound Vivian fast.

A pulse from her soul swept through the entire tower. Her servants would have felt it: above the liege they served, there was now an even greater Demon King.

No change occurred in the tower. Thankfully, the information he had uncovered in the system was correct.

“Do you regret it?”

“It's better than dying.”

“I understand a proud death is also a Demon King's virtue.”

“Serving one's lord well is a true servant's virtue, too. How about tonight?”

Vivian exuded a peculiar sensuality. Berge's brow furrowed.

“Don't try that shit with me.”

“A succubus using her specialty is trying shit? Now that I'm your servant, what's wrong with doing my best as one?”

“I have no interest in a half-baked specimen missing her tail and a horn.”

“Th-That's...!”

She couldn't bring herself to say, You demanded one of them! They were no longer Demon Kings on equal footing.

Leaving Vivian to grind her teeth inwardly, Berge approached the throne.

He was simply curious. How would the tower that had rejected him as unauthorized react now that he had returned as its master's master?

[Warning! An unauthorized... error.]

The mechanical voice abruptly cut off. The tower suddenly began to shake. A changed announcement sounded.

[Identification - Berge Deias -]

[Superior entity - Berge Deias - has subjugated the tower's master - Vivian Blunt -.]

[He is the master of another tower.]

[Conditions have been met.]

[The two towers resonate. The tower of - Vivian Blunt - is placed under the ownership of the tower of the superior entity - Berge Deias -.]

[The tower of - Berge Deias - can absorb the tower of - Vivian Blunt -.]

[Would you like to absorb it?]

“...?”

Do what?