Chapter 114: The One Who Curses Digs Two Graves (10)

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“Is that really what that old man is scheming?”

“In my opinion, we should try to reach a reasonable compromise. We can also use this opportunity to make the Neutral Faction owe us a favor.”

We discussed what a reasonable compromise would be. I brought up the alternative that I had already prepared beforehand and made it seem as if I had thought it up on the spot. Barbatos was unable to throw away her desire to hold a hearing, but there were no alternatives since we didn’t have anything else to persuade the Neutral Faction with. In the end, my suggestion was accepted.

I gave Marbas a glance, notifying him that we had finished our discussion. Marbas wasn’t even looking at me, but he must’ve been paying attention to me at all times as he stood up as soon as I sent him a glance.

“It appears that everyone is enjoying the banquet. As the host, I am honored. Allow me to have the honor of making a toast. For the Crescent Alliance!”

“For the Crescent Alliance!”

The Demon Lords emptied their glasses in a single gulp.

The volume of the music gradually dimmed down. The young men and women that were dancing in the nude slowly made their way out. Marbas had most likely sent them a signal. The elaborate planning of a Demon Lord who specializes in politics was impressive. 

“Although I personally wish to carry on with this banquet forever.”

Marbas gazed at each and every Demon Lord.

“Unfortunately, we are in the middle of a war. The goal of this banquet is for the commanding leaders of our army to get accustomed to the faces of the allies they will be marching together with on the battlefield. Therefore, war is the first and foremost goal.”

Once Marbas nodded, a peculiar three-dimensional image appeared in the center of the room. It was a map of Bruno Plains where both the Demon Lord army and the human army were currently positioned. It accurately displayed the locations of all 6 legions of the Crescent Alliance and the human nations from the Habsburg Empire to the Kingdom of Brittany. 

“The human forces have a total of 140,000 soldiers. Our Crescent Alliance has 110,000 soldiers in total.”

Marbas continued.

“If we consider the quality of our soldiers, then we have an overwhelming advantage; however, at least 25 knight brigades will be taking part on the human side. Among them, a majority of the knights from the <Master of Swords> will most likely be included. In the end, this will not be an easy battle. If we are unable to trust each other in this situation, then we will undoubtedly fail. Thus, as the host of this banquet and the leader of the Neutral Faction, I would like to ask you all a favor. Put aside your internal strife. Will you consider my request?”

I stood up.

“I, Rank 71 Dantalian, shall speak as the representative of the Plains Faction. Regardless of the Mountain Faction’s intentions, it is true that we were essentially threatened. For the sake of forgiving this crime, the Mountain Faction must prove that they truly did not intend to betray us.”

“Mm.”

Marbas nodded.

“But how are they supposed to prove themselves? They do not have any backing piece of evidence.”

“They can create it, then. People of the Mountain Faction!”

I glared at Paimon and Sitri.

“Stand as the vanguard for the great war that will soon unfold! The very act of fighting against the humans at the forefront will be enough proof that you are still loyal to the Demon Lord army.”

Sitri looked like she chewed on a bug once I finished talking.

Being the vanguard in a large-scale battle will undoubtedly incur the most losses. There’s no way to avoid this since the battle will be fought by more than 200,000 soldiers in total. To put it simply, we were telling them to prove their innocence through blood.

“You bastard…….”

“Keep in mind that our proposal is incredibly generous. We are not asking you to compensate us with money or give us a public apology. We are simply offering you the honor of standing as the vanguard of the Crescent Alliance.”

“Hah, honor? We’ll die a dog’s death!”

Sitri started to fume again. She really is a hotblooded fellow. Nonetheless, this is something she can’t refuse.

“I am telling you this beforehand, but there is no room for negotiations. Will you accept this or refuse it. You only have these two options. If you refuse this offer, then the Plains Faction will immediately send the Mountain Faction a declaration of war.”

I wasn’t bluffing. Barbatos isn’t someone who’s naive enough to do nothing after being attacked. She wanted revenge even if it meant that this Crescent Alliance expedition could fail. It was for the dignity of her group.

Sitri became dumbstruck.

“You guys are the ones betraying the Crescent Alliance!”

“Crescent Alliance this, Crescent Alliance that……. If you truly do cherish the Crescent Alliance, then prove it through your actions. All of the actions that the Mountain Faction has taken until now clearly went against the cause of the Crescent Alliance. No one will believe you if you only put your words forward and nothing else.”

I laughed.

“You do not wish to fight at the forefront, but go on about acting for the sake of demonkind……and when you think you can profit, you start scheming for things like an armistice? You surely are blessed. I envy you.”

Schemes are a double-edged sword. Schemes that fail become incidents to bemoan as they come back to you like arrows. Or, at the very least, they’re like arrows that leave the bow and scrape off your skin. A bullet that can kill the schemer because of the ricochet. 

This is why schemers must always dig two graves. If they intend to kill someone, then they need to resolve themselves to die as well. Paimon, have you made that resolve?

“This weak little shit, acting all exalted―.”

“Wait a moment.”

Paimon intervened right when Sitri was about to shout something. Sitri looked discontent, but she backed down obediently once Paimon stopped her.

It was now that Paimon opened her mouth for the first time today.

“Dantalian. We will accept your suggestion.”

“S-Sis!?”

Sitri was shocked.

“Please stay silent. ……Stand as the vanguard of the Crescent Alliance. Will you believe in our innocence if we do this?”

“Yes, that is correct. I assure you that the Plains Faction will not ask for anything more in regard to this incident after this.”

“Very well, then. However, we have a condition.”

“A condition?”

Paimon nodded.

“There is a ceremonial procedure that is always carried out before a war of this size. One representative from both sides will come out and give a speech in order to lower the enemy’s morale and raise the morale of their allies. It is unnecessary for raid operations, but it is a very useful procedure in situations like this.”

Ah.

I know what she’s talking about. This was something that was possible because magic exists in the world of <Dungeon Attack>. A representative is put up on a large hologram screen and their voices are amplified so that they can give a speech to the opposing side’s army. This is usually done for the sake of boasting one’s strength and declaring how weak their foes are before claiming that their actions are justified in this war while their enemies’ are not.

The main character in <Dungeon Attack> was talented in this. Mankind, rise! Let us fight together! Every human army would respond with a cheer once the protagonist shouted these words. In the game, you would toss a die and the morale of your troops would increase and decrease according to the result of the toss. In other words, this gave a buff.

So a system in the game is treated like a ‘ceremony’ here. But what about it? I gave Paimon a curious look.

“Dantalian, I request that you give the speech as our representative.”

“Pardon?”

“This is the Mountain Faction’s condition. We as well will not allow room for negotiations.”

Paimon closed her mouth as if that was all she had to say.

“…….”

It didn’t make sense. How could going out as the representative to give the speech be considered a condition? I requested a moment to think and went to discuss with Barbatos in private. I felt too uncertain to make any decisions on my own.

The sound of music filled the room again. Thinking about it now, the music has an effect of preventing people from listening in on secret conversations between people. Marbas really is thorough.

“Paimon probably shared a magical vow with the imperial princess from Habsburg. I’m not certain, though.”

“Aha. So that’s why it’d be troubling if she were to make the war declaration first.”

Barbatos’ speculation definitely seemed plausible.

Be it the imperial princess or Paimon, they made a secret agreement with the race their respective kinds had been fighting for over 2,000 years. They most likely set up some safety precautions. For example, a spell that puts a curse on them if they ever decide to break their vows and attack the other side. Hmm. Magic is still a new thing for me, so I never considered this possibility. Well, it doesn’t particularly matter since there’s no way of knowing what sort of contract they could’ve made…….

“But why me?”

“She’s trying to get revenge, idiot.”

Barbatos seemed to enjoy my misfortune as she chuckled.

“Until now, you’ve constantly been scheming behind the curtains. What do you think would happen if you stepped forward and made the declaration of war in a battle of this size? Your face will be remembered by both the humans and demons.”

“Damn it. Her grudges are incredible.”

It made sense, but it wasn’t exactly enough to convince me. Are you telling me she set that condition simply because of her personal grudge towards me? No matter how you try to put it, that just seems stingy and immature. The reason why Paimon failed wasn’t due to my insidiousness, but because she messed up. I’ve only been acting according to her plans.

I let out a sigh.

“Well……It can’t be helped.”

“Oh? So you’re going to accept it?”

“It’s not like giving a speech is going to hurt me that much.”

To put it bluntly, there are most likely only a few humans who know that I’m the Rank 71 Demon Lord Dantalian. No, wouldn’t it be close to none? My name will go around a bit if I go out as the representative, but that’s it.

People remember the generals of the invading army, not the envoys. At most, my infamy might go up a little. No, if anything, this might increase my right to speak in the Demon Lord army. If you put this into consideration, this might actually be a rather honorable position.

It was on the spot, but a good idea came to mind as well.

I immediately gave an answer after I finished consulting with Barbatos.

“Very well. If the other commanders here agree to it as well, then I will more than gladly go out as the representative of the Crescent Alliance.”

The other commanders readily agreed. It was because Marbas actively asked for their approval. The blonde Gamigin didn’t seem pleased as she remained stubborn until the end, but she ultimately consented. Gamigin was probably disappointed that she couldn’t use this opportunity to crush the Mountain Faction.

The negotiation came to an end.

In conclusion, our Plains Faction managed to force the Mountain Faction into a situation where they will incur losses without us having to dirty our hands. The Neutral Faction managed to show their authority once more by mediating between the Plains Faction and the Mountain Faction. By chance, the remaining Demon Lords with no affiliations managed to prevent the Mountain Faction from monopolizing all of the accomplishments from the Crescent Alliance. And, finally, the Mountain Faction pushed their innocence through. Each group obtained a relatively satisfying result from this meeting.

We all agreed that we had to go to battle as soon as possible. We had gathered an excessively large army. Going to battle was essential for the sake of obtaining an ample supply of provisions, human flesh.

The Demon Lord army repositioned themselves in a rather disorderly way. The Mountain Faction’s 1st legion was the vanguard. The Neutral Faction’s 2nd legion, Vassago and Valefor’s 4th legion, and our Plains Faction’s 6th legion made up the middle army while the rest of the Demon Lords took up the rear. It took 2 full days for us to reposition ourselves like this. 

During this, the human armies were also organizing their battle array. We could see the Frankish Empire’s flag fluttering in the distance across the plains. It seems the Frankish Empire was the vanguard for the humans. War was gradually approaching.

For the past 2 days, I was shut in my quarters busily preparing a speech. I ended up with the important role of saying the opening words for the upcoming war, after all. I’d become the laughing stock of 200,000 soldiers from both the human and demon sides if I accidentally bite my tongue during my speech. I won’t embarrass myself like that!

“I believe that much preparation is enough.”

Lapis commented. Referentially, it was around this time that she, an employee of the Keuncuska Firm and my exclusive merchant, had arrived. It felt like a long time had passed since I last saw her pink hair. Even though it had only been 2 months since we last met.

“You can never have enough practice.”

“Haa. Is that so?”

Up to this point, she had been following my orders and spreading rumors throughout the human and demon worlds. Furthermore, she made contact with leading members of the human army by using bribes when necessary. In other words, she had been moving as my hands and feet while I was out on this expedition. 

“In regard to Her Highness Paimon, she is also contracted to our Keuncuska Firm so we noticed her movements. She has apparently been concentrating her efforts on gathering intel on Your Highness Dantalian.”

“Hm? On me?”

“Yes, it has already been a month since she has started.”

A lot of time has already passed if she started a month ago. She’s been gathering information on me all this time?

“……Did she notice that I’ve been acting behind the scenes?”

“My information gathering did not manage to get that far.”

However, Lapis continued.

“Be careful. Her Highness Paimon is not one of the highest-ranking Demon Lords only in name. There is a chance that she could be hiding a trump card.”

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. The general consensus seemed okay with me putting early access chapters on my Patreon, so I spent the past few days just translating as much as I can so I wouldn’t delay my normal releases but also have extra chapters on my Patreon. I’m not really sure what a ‘fair’ price would be, so I set the chapters to be accessible by people who pay $3 or more. Custom pledges, unfortunately, don’t allow you to see the posts even if you pay more than $3 because Patreon isn’t advanced enough for that apparently. They’ll only let you see posts meant for ‘All Patreons’.

In any case, I guess we’ll see how this goes. I’ll see you guys in the next chapter, or on my Patreon now I guess?