"In the first city, there was someone who was talking about Demon to outsiders."
"!"
"Oh no...! Hey, Hell!!"
Before his startled adjutant could say anything, Hell disappeared. As if he was literally falling into the ground.
Although I was surprised for a moment, I quickly nodded.
'That's right, he was from a shadow.'
A literal shadow, not a metaphorical expression.
The power of the Demon King did not purely unite among itself to create demons. If it inhabited an ogre, a demon of ogre origin is born, and if it inhabited an object, a demon in the form of that object is born.
Hell, the Commander of the 8th Corps, was a demon born with the power of the Demon King imbued in his shadow.
Maybe that's why the shadow, which can't even see its face, appears to have a three-dimensional effect, but I never thought he would have had such an ability.
...But why did he disappear?
"A guy who couldn't even fulfill his duties doesn't deserve to eat Demon's cookies. So, Demon."
"Yes, yes?"
"Can you give me both of them?"
"Dvelania!"
Before I could answer, the adjutant who was kneeling where Hell had disappeared and looking at the floor in confusion shouted. Actually, I was the one who was scared by him.
The adjutant shouting loudly at the Corps Commander. It was also a Corps Commander who was not my immediate superior.
Is he really crazy?
'Don't do this here, go out and fight, you bastards...'
Don't spill blood in my room.
***
Deon must have been very uncomfortable with the two demons roaring in his territory, so he handed each bag of cookies to Dvelania and Hell's lieutenant, Nine, and sent them out.
No, to be more precise, it was closer to the fact that the two noticed the discomfort of Demon Arut and took the initiative to back down. If they had done more there, there would definitely have been a disaster.
They knew very well how scary his anger was. The two were not foolish enough to look down on someone who was normally a moderate person.
However, a fight that temporarily stopped because of one person cannot end just like that.
As soon as they came out of the room and the door closed, Nine held the cookie bag tightly in his arms and glared fiercely at Dvelania. Interest arose in Dvelania's eyes.
"Oh, are you glaring at me now?"
"Stop harassing our Hell!"
"Why, I just said something true?"
"Even so, his self-esteem is at rock bottom, so do you have no conscience?! It's too much!"
8th Corps Commander Hell. A person who had mastered the art of weapons to the extent that he handled all weapons as if they were his own body.
Coming from the shadows, his unique abilities seemed to be suitable for missions related to infiltration, so at first even the Demon King wanted to appoint him as the Commander of the 2nd Corps, but he had one fatal flaw... his self-esteem was ridiculously low.
'There's no way you would entrust me with such an important task. There is no way someone like me could do something like this. Is it really okay for someone like me to do something like this?'
But if he failed just a little bit, he'd think, 'After all, trash like me should go out and die. Why do I live? After all, I am trash, not worth breathing...'
"Trash... I am trash after all..."
Nine was confused as he looked at his superior, who suddenly popped out from the shadows at his feet and sat down, covering his face with both hands.
Blood was dripping from the edge of his clothes, as if he had just finished taking care of his work.
He explained several times how amazing it was that he got the job done so quickly...
"No! How did you come to this conclusion even now? Everyone makes mistakes. How you handle it is important. In that sense, Hell did an excellent job cleaning up the mess! You did a great job!"
"...Really?"
"Of course! If Hell had made a really big mistake, Demon wouldn't have given him cookies like this! Look at this."
"Is that really mine...? Commander Demon gave it to me as my share...?"
"Yes!"
Actually, he got it through a war of nerves with the 2nd Corps Commander. Nine, who had lost his cool, waved the cookie bag as if to show off, attracting his attention.
"So don't act like this here, get up quickly. Let's eat some of these cookies in your room and relax."
Looking at this scene, some may wonder why the 8th Corps Commander blamed himself when it was just news that the story about Demon was circulating outside.
But this was natural.
Until the uproar caused by the monsters, the 8th Corps Commander's current external mission, which seemed to exist as if he did not know what mission he was in charge of and no one was interested in it, was 'bordering major cities in the demon world.'
However, there was a secret mission he had been carrying out even before that.
A mission that he took on from the moment Demon Arut joined the Demon King's army.
To prevent information about Demon Arut's appearance from leaking out to the human world.
Why was the story about Commander of the 0th Corps not widely known?
Why couldn't the Empire even figure out what the Commander of the 0th Corps looked like?
Did all of this really feel like a coincidence?
Hell moved steadily from the moment he received the mission. When a worker on vacation outside the Demon King's Castle tried to tell an acquaintance about the appearance of Demon Arut. When Demon goes out on a monster hunt and revealed his bare face at a gambling house in the first city. Even when fighting with a hero at the border with the human world.
He steadily followed the trail, killing and silencing those who saw.
Contrary to his low self-esteem, he had excellent workmanship without a single mistake.
Even now, as soon as the 2nd Corps Commander received a tip, didn't he move immediately, deal with the enemy, and return swiftly? If you think about the amount of time it took to get all of this done, it was ridiculous that people who heard the story would have dealt with it as well.
'I just need to do something about his self-esteem... Sigh.'
While Nine was sighing, Hell got up from his position. As if to reassure him, Nine smiled and politely held out his hand, and Hell was about to take it.
"Isn't it important not to make mistakes in the first place?"
"...!"
"Dvelania!"
Hell collapsed again like a sand castle. Dvelania giggled at the immediate response. This was why she couldn't stop harassing the 8th Corps Commander.
Because it's fun.
It had nothing to do with Dvelania, so she turned around, leaving behind Nine, who was talking about how he kept arguing, asking why the demons could make a mistake, asking why he was so upset, and saying that he was going to go to the Demon King.
'If this continues, I won't even dream of disturbing you for a while.'
She planned to persuade Demon to go to the second city to buy clothes soon, but it would be difficult if there were disturbances even then.
Deon had no intention of going, but Dvelania was already happily thinking about what clothes to buy, and took a brisk step forward.
She burst out laughing happily at the shout of the cocky 8th Corps commander's adjutant coming from behind her.
***
The Kingdom of Ireon was in chaos.
"They say the imperial army has already trampled a city and is advancing towards here! You say they'll be arriving in the next city soon, but what on earth have you been doing to let it get to this point?"
"How can we come up with a solution that even you can't come up with!!"
"So you're saying we should all die together like this?!"
People who couldn't do anything other than sit in front of a table and raise their voices were shouting loudly, saying that their lives were not worth it, while innocent people were dying outside.
The conference hall, which should have been sacred, had long since turned into an arena for fighting rather than a place for preparing countermeasures.
'That's bullshit.'
The King of Ireon, who was sitting on the throne, gently pressed his eyebrows. Even though he took the medicine, his head was already pounding as if he was getting a headache.
That's why he said, don't mess with the Emperor. Because black flames were flickering in his eyes that he met by chance.
It was not a red flame. It was not burning on the basis of passion, anger, hatred, and revenge, which were common fuels.
A flame that is empty but burns relentlessly without losing the will to live. If you had to give it a color, it would be closer to 'black' rather than 'red'.
Yes, it was a black flame. He still didn't know for what purpose it was burning, but he instinctively knew that nothing good would come of touching it.
'I thought this country was in good shape before...'
This was how it fell apart.
The king's words did not work. The king's authority had fallen to the ground, and the nobles were too busy serving their own interests and did not take care of the people. Nevertheless, perhaps because they were politicians, they were not stupid at all, but this time it was a miscalculation.
The nobles were not blinded by money and demanded compensation from the Empire. Underlying their actions was the expectation that, even if the Empire would not immediately grant their demands, they would at least attempt 'negotiation'.
Think about it with common sense. In any case, it is true that there was a small battle near the border, and depending on one's perspective, this was enough to be felt as a threat to the Kingdom of Ireon.
In addition, wars cost a lot of money and manpower. Only two years had passed since the end of the Eight Year War, so it was difficult to imagine that the Empire would easily take the call of 'war' in this situation.
Even Deon Hardt, who was a great vanguard during the Eight Year War, had to rest due to injury, so who would have expected war?
Of course, this was based on 'common sense'.
The king covered his mouth, leaving the embarrassed nobles alone.
He felt like he knew what the Emperor was hoping for, so he felt like he would start crying.
'...Did the Emperor want war from the beginning?'
A cautious guess soon became a certainty. The Emperor was waiting for a 'catalyst' to wage war. The Kingdom of Ireon had diligently provided him with the opportunity to draw his sword, and it would become the first victim of that sword.
If he had known this fact earlier...
'...It would still have been the same.'
Even then and now, he was a powerless king and his voice will be drowned out by the remarks of the nobles.
"How about... surrendering?"
In the chaotic conference hall, one of the nobles spoke cautiously. The king quietly closed his eyes as he looked at the other nobles, whose eyes were shining as if they were waiting.
This was also expected.
Those who had much to lose were afraid to fight. Loyalists died or disappeared without anyone knowing, and even those who were clean were stained with mud.
There were only traitors left here. He knew very well that those who put their own interests first could not serve the country.
But why did his mouth taste so bitter?
"What do you think, Your Highness?"
The King of Ireon smiled helplessly as he faced the eyes that were looking at him with one mind and one intention, as if asking when they had fought.
"Let's prepare for surrender."
***
A month has already passed since I arrived at the Demon King's Castle.
And I was able to recall a very important fact that I had overlooked.
"I'm bored..."
The Demon King's Castle has nothing to do! I should have brought something fun to play when I came.
Snap. I threw the cube I had just solved onto one side of the bed and laid to the side. I turned my head, buried half my face in the pillow, and looked down at the floor.
There was a large, completed puzzle sitting there.
There's one more thing to decorate the wall of my room. It was a few pieces long. Was it 6000 pieces?
That's probably about it. I vaguely remember it because it was a puzzle I once threw out of self-destruction. It's so hard for me to guess that in the end...
'Oh, I don't know.'
Thanks to a month of rest, the shadows under my eyes that had formed in the human world had disappeared, but I felt like I was going crazy because I don't do anything.
"...I guess I should at least go outside."