Chapter 63: Two Schemes (4)

* * *

“……up.”

“……Wake u…….”

A nagging voice pierced through my distant consciousness. The fragmented voice kept knocking on my skull. I made a face as I forced my eyes open. My skin felt heavy.

“Wake up, Sir Dantalian.”

“Uuugh. Lapis?”

Once I turned my head, I saw a half-succubus girl wearing a suit. It was Lapis. Her pink pigtails hung down as she bowed.

I spoke while yawning.

“What’s the matter?”

“There is something very urgent I must report to you about. It would be troubling to tell you about it here.”

Lapis wasn’t the type of person to report about each and every trivial thing. She would deal with most issues at her own discretion and only ask me for my decision and intent. This was also because I trusted her competence.

“Damn it, this must be a severe matter.”

Lapis would never exaggerate her words or inflate the importance of a situation. Even if she spoke calmly with a face void of emotions, if she says that something is very urgent, then it’s indeed very urgent.

It hasn’t even been that long since I dealt with those E-rank adventurers.

Right when I was about to get annoyed, Lapis lowered her voice a pitch and spoke.

“Although the urgent matter I wish to tell you about does not seem as severe as your current situation.

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“Please put on some clothes first. You must maintain your dignity as a Demon Lord.”

Ah.

It was at that moment I realized that I was currently naked in the water. Adding to this, Laura was also naturally in the water with me, sleeping in my arms. It was as clear as day what we had done.

I opened my mouth.

“Kya…….”

“Kya?”

Lapis tilted her head with no expression on her face.

“Kyaaaaa!”

A scream echoed throughout the underground pond.

Lapis could be heard muttering, ‘……Has the gender roles not been swapped?’.

* * *

Lapis and I sat across from each other at a table in my Demon Lord room. With the map that was completed by the dwarf craftsmen spread out between us, we discussed our current situation. Laura was fast asleep on my bed a fair distance away from us. I was being considerate since she must have been tired after her first time.

“Ehem. Please forget what you saw earlier.”

“I have already forgotten it. It is a worthless thing to remember.”

“…….”

In other words, she was saying that she had no interest in my body. I’ve always felt this, but Lapis really is a malicious person…….

I decided to check her current status just to see if she was disappointed in my conduct.

‘Status.’

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Name: Lapis Lazuli Race: Half-Succubus　　 Faction: Keuncuska Firm Attribute: Neutral(-10)

Level: 24　　　　Fame: 134 Job: Merchant(A-), Witch(B), Swordsman(D)

Leadership: 59　　Might: 32 　　Intelligence: 55 Politics: 74　　Charm: 50　　Technique: 2

Affection: 50 Current thought: ‘……Idiot.’ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

‘A-As I thought, she thinks I’m an idiot!’

I murmured to myself. Of course she’d think I’m an idiot if I play around with a girl as soon as the sun comes up. Fortunately, her affection points didn’t go down, so I had no other choice but to comfort myself with that. From now on, I’m going to have to be an even more wholesome and model Demon Lord in front of Lapis and never display myself like some playboy.

In any case.

We stopped the idle chatter and went to the main topic. Lapis informed me that she found proof on Riff and warned me that I might face a higher ranking Demon Lord in the future.

“A Demon Lord’s rank is not absolute. There are occasions where a ranked sixty can defeat a rank fifty, and a rank forty can defeat a rank 30. For example.”

Lapis’ slender finger pointed towards a single piece of parchment. On the document she had brought, there were the symbols of all seventy-two Demon Lords drawn out in order.

“His Highness Rank 29 Astaroth. He went to war with Her Highness Rank 23 Aym 150 years ago and managed to get her to surrender. 70 years ago, His Highness Rank 32 Asmodeus defeated His Highness Rank 30 Forneus. The reason why the two Demon Lords, who would normally lose in a normal battle, came out victorious is because.”

“A battle between factions.”

“…….”

Lapis’ eyes widened slightly.

“……That is correct. By borrowing the strength of their factions, they confronted the other Demon Lord with the help of a Demon Lord stronger than themselves.”

“I realized this clearly during the Walpurgis Night. There are large conflicts even between Demon Lords. Paimon, who was humiliated by me, is most likely the head of a faction. Furthermore,”

I pointed towards a certain part of the parchment. Rank 68 Demon Lord Belial. The symbol that was said to have been discovered on Riff’s corpse.

“This Belial fellow is most likely a part of the faction that’s led by Paimon.”

“Your Highness is correct about that as well.”

Lapis was surprised. To other people, it most likely appeared like her expression hadn’t changed at all since earlier, but I could read her emotions.

“How could you tell?”

“It would only make sense if he was.”

“It would make sense?”

“That’s right.”

I nodded.

“Fundamentally, you are right, Lapis. Thinking about it now, it was weird. How could Riff, who was nothing more than a low-ranking adventurer, procure heavy equipment? That would be impossible without the help of a person of means. Any formal proof that Riff had borrowed money or received support from someone could not be discovered anywhere; however, Rank 68 Demon Lord Belial’s insignia was discovered on his corpse⎯⎯.”

Anyone would find this suspicious.

They would think that Belial was the culprit who had supported Riff from the shadows.

“Why did Belial support Riff? This question can be answered easily. Belial is a part of Paimon’s faction and Paimon was humiliated by a mere Demon Lord ranked in the seventies. Belial attacked me, Dantalian, in order to get revenge for his faction leader’s humiliation. There is nothing weird about this.”

“This one thinks so as well.”

Lapis nodded.

“Belial is known as Her Highness Paimon’s ardent follower. Almost all citizens of the demon world know that he had fallen for Her Highness Paimon’s nature, ideology, and beauty. It is obvious that he would be hostile towards Your Highness.”

“Hm.”

I smiled.

“Is it not weird?”

“Excuse me?”

“Think about it in the culprit’s shoes. Riff always stood at the lead, so it would not be strange for him to die at any moment. Would anyone want to leave candid proof of their involvement on the body of such an individual? If things went badly, then we would discover that they were the culprit. And, in reality, we did find out who the culprit was.”

Lapis placed her hand on her chin. She fell into deep thought.

Her eyes narrowed.

“……So it is a ruse.”

I grinned. I signaled for her to continue.

“It is a scheme to divide the prestigious Demon Lords. The culprit is not a Demon Lord.”

“You are right that this is a scheme; however, you are wrong about the culprit not being a Demon Lord.”

“……Why is that?”

“It is simple. There is only a small minority of people who know what happened during the Walpurgis Night. The only individuals who knew of the truth around the time Riff invaded were the Demon Lords who participated in the Walpurgis Night.”

Originally, Paimon was supposed to give a public apology before the eyes of the people for the crime of trying to frame me.

However, I was lenient towards Paimon so that I wouldn’t ruin the occasion. Of course, my true intention was to gain the goodwill of the Demon Lord who had taken the role of the hearing’s moderator, Rank 5 Marbas. In any case, we wrapped things up with Paimon apologizing to me once in the ballroom.

Riff’s party approached immediately after that incident.

It would take at least 2 days before the news that ‘Paimon was humiliated by Dantalian’ could spread to the Demon Lords or factions that didn’t participate in the Walpurgis Night.

I stayed in Niflheim for another week after the hearing ended and I was informed about Riff’s party 2 days after I returned to my dungeon. By that point, Riff had already formed an alliance with the civilian militia. In other words, at the latest, Riff formed the alliance immediately after the hearing was over!

An outsider heard about what happened during the Walpurgis Night and came up with this appropriate scheme within no more than 3 to 4 days? Not only did they create a scheme, but they managed to back Riff’s party as well?

I’m certain.

“It’s physically impossible.”

I made a declaration like some high school student with the supernatural ability to cause murder cases to happen at any place and time.

“The culprit is among the roughly 30 Demon Lords who participated in the hearing during the Walpurgis Night.”

“I am amazed.”

Lapis was purely in awe.

“It is as Your Highness says.”

“Well, this also means that the chief of your company, Ivar Lodbrok, is also included in the list of suspects…….”

Ivar, the person who looks like an old man on the outside but is actually currently a loli vampire, has her weakness firmly in my grasp. I threatened her with her true body.

Similar to how you could probably make an assumption by the number of clones she has, she is an extremely cautious person. The chances of her rashly devising a scheme after her bitter experience during the hearing is slim, so I made the firm decision to remove her from the list.

“Let us lower the number of possible suspects. Lapis, could you find out which Demon Lords exactly took part in the Walpurgis Night? Also what faction they respectively belong to.”

Lapis took out a quill pen. She then proceeded to check off the participants on the list without any hesitation.

‘As expected of Lapis.’

I was satisfied. I’m not sure if she noticed, but I had just now given her a type of test. What normal merchant would constantly remember who participated in the Walpurgis Night and what faction they all belonged to?

And yet, Lapis was currently checking off the list naturally. This meant that she had perfectly organized the necessary information about the participants and their factions before coming to me. The proof was that she responded to my slightly unreasonable request immediately. Is this not amazing preparedness?

If Lapis were incompetent, then she wouldn’t have gone out of her way to do the cumbersome task of bringing a list with all the names of the Demon Lords, remember all the participants of Walpurgis Night, and know all of their relations to each faction. She would have simply ran over just to tell me that she had discovered a large scheme. Lapis is different from those dullards.

‘She’s a typical secretary through and through.’

An individual that has the ability and preparedness to immediately answer anything the person they serve may ask. That is Lapis Lazuli. Both Laura and I are capable of deducing things by utilizing the information we have at hand, but there is a limit for us when it comes to acquiring information in itself. She’s currently bound to the Keuncuska Firm at the moment, but I intend to formally hire her into my forces one day.

“I have finished.”

She completed my request within 2 minutes. Lapis spoke candidly as if she had done an obvious task. That expression of hers made me want her more. Ah, wait a bit. I will make you my chief retainer the instant my side becomes a workplace more charming than the Keuncuska Firm.

The individuals marked on the list looked roughly like this.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Rank 5 Marbas  ·　·　·  (Neutral)

Rank 8 Barbatos  ·　·　·  (Plains)

Rank 9 Paimon  ·　·　·  (Mountain)

Rank 10 Buer  ·　·　·  (  –  )

Rank 12 Sitri  ·　·　·  (Mountain)

Rank 14 Leraje  ·　·　·  (Plains)

Rank 16 Zepar  ·　·　·  (Plains)

Rank 20 Purson  ·　·　·  (Neutral)

Rank 21 Marax  ·　·　·  (Mountain)

Rank 22 Ipos  ·　·　·  (  –  )

Rank 27 Renove  ·　·　·  (Mountain)

Rank 31 Foras  ·　·　·  (Mountain)

Rank 33 Gaap  ·　·　·  (Mountain)

·

·

·

Rank 50 Furcas  ·　·　·  (Plains)

Rank 55 Orobas  ·　·　·  (Mountain)

Rank 57 Ose  ·　·　·  (Mountain)

Rank 62 Valac  ·　·　·  (Mountain)

Rank 68 Belial  ·　·　·  (Mountain)

Rank 70 Seere  ·　·　·  (  –  )

Rank 71 Dantalian  ·　·　·  (  –  )

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

I assume the ‘Neutral’ written on the side is also the name of a faction.

“A total of thirty-two Demon Lord participated in the Walpurgis Night.”

I nodded.

“All right. Give me a brief explanation about the factions.”

“Certainly. For starters, the Demon Lords are largely divided into three factions. First, the Plains Faction’s name comes from their leader’s, Her Highness Rank 8 Barbatos’ Demon Lord Castle since it is located in the plains.”

Barbatos is the leading Demon Lord that wants to conquer the human world. Therefore, the individuals gathered in the Plains Faction are just like the Demon Lords that appear in stories as they genuinely despise, wish to wipe out, and wish to conquer humans.

“In truth, the castles of most of the Plains Faction’s Demon Lords are in the plains. The plains are an area where humans reside. If a Demon Lord Castle is located in the plains, then they have no other choice but to have discord with humans.”

“They have many old grudges against humans, I see.”

These people were also the group that favored me. I crushed Paimon, Barbatos’ arch-rival, after all. I haven’t explicitly joined a certain faction, but I felt like the other Demon Lords most likely see me partially as a part of the Plains Faction.

A majority of the Demon Lords wouldn’t believe that a mere Rank 71 had defeated Rank 9 Paimon on my own. They would most likely think that Barbatos had done something behind the scene. Whether this misunderstanding will be good for me or not will be determined by the path I decide to take.

“Next is the Mountain Faction. It is led by Her Highness Paimon. Among the seventy-two Demon Lords, thirty-five of them belong to the Mountain Faction. They are worthy of being referred to as the greatest faction.”

And they’re temporarily a hostile faction.

“A majority of the Demon Lords in the Mountain Faction reside in mountainous areas. Mountainous areas are controlled by monsters and are outside the reach of human nations. The individuals in the Mountain Faction have no reason to go out of their way to shed blood and fight humans.”

In other words, they’re the type of people who dislike and don’t care about war because they reside in safe and comfortable places. This is probably one of the reasons why Barbatos regards these people as complacent pieces of trash.

“It is a matter of course that a Demon Lord reigns in places where monsters reside. The Mountain Faction being the greatest group is not a coincidence. Your Highness’ action of turning the Mountain Faction into your enemy was not particularly wise, even if it was inevitable……. However.”

Lapis scanned the list with a cold gaze.

“Just because they are the greatest faction does not make them the strongest. There is a way for Your Highness to get out of this.”

Her blue eyes glimmered with a dark glint.

***

TL Notes: Thanks for reading the chapter. Isn’t it nice to read a perfectly clean chapter after those two consecutive NSFW ones? It’s nice for me. I don’t really have much else to say other than the usual swarm of assignments. I’ve also been playing the NA release of PSO2 and I’ve been having a blast. Whether the assignments or PSO2 is distracting me more from translating is something for you guys to figure out on your own.

I’ll see you guys in the next release!