Chapter 149 : What Was He Doing
Chapter 149: What Was He Doing?
Roger Friedrich opened his eyes to a dizzying pain pounding in his head.
He met glowing red eyes shining in the darkness. His breath caught on its own. A chill ran down the back of his neck.
“Y-Your Highness the Princess!”
“If you’re awake, shouldn’t you get up already?”
“I’m up!”
“Attention.”
“Attention!”
“What should I do with you?”
Roger Friedrich desperately racked his brain.
Louise Berfht had been kidnapped by the Demon King. And yet the fact that she could calmly converse with him on the second floor of the tower meant...
‘She was persuaded by the Demon King?’
Like the other princesses?
‘How on earth? He should be changed from the Demon King of Dark Flame to the Demon King of Deceit!’
“Ahaha.... You already heard everything, didn’t you? I didn’t actually help the Princess escape, it was a kidnapping....”
“Yes, that’s what it looked like. Since you were holed up in a place like this, no matter how much I searched, you weren’t there. Right?”
“O-Of course. I was desperate to return to Your Highness as well, but that wicked Demon King absolutely wouldn’t let me....”
“So that’s why you said you wouldn’t make anything for a scoundrel like me?”
“I-I swear I never said such a thing!”
Louise Berfht snorted. In truth, that wasn’t very important.
“Honestly, when I think about all the trouble I went through because of you, I want to kill you on the spot.”
“H-Hiiik...! Everything was because of the Demon King! I’m innocent!”
“Are you, really?”
“I’m innocent!”
“Then what about the humiliation you gave 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. It drew attention, and thanks to that I took a solid hit from the Demon King. If that hadn’t happened, things wouldn’t have turned out like this!”
The Demon King wouldn’t have been able to escape, and you would have ended up back in my grasp.
“At the time, there was a bomb installed on my neck!”
“So? Does having a bomb mean it’s fine to throw the princess you served into a trap?”
“O-Of course that’s not what I meant.... And back then, that was an axe.... Even if in the middle of it, it looked like a sword.”
By the end, his voice had grown so small it was almost inaudible.
“Does that matter?”
“...It doesn’t matter.”
Thud—
Roger Friedrich’s body flew through the air. He was flung dozens of meters back and slammed into the wall.
“Ugyagyagyagyagk!”
Roger Friedrich rolled across the floor.
“Stop exaggerating and get up.”
“Yes!”
It wasn’t exaggeration. It was just that the murderous intent pouring down in real time was far more frightening.
Louise Berfht lightly brushed off her hand.
“If the Demon King hadn’t told me to leave you unharmed, it wouldn’t have ended here.”
“Thank you!”
“Instead, from now on your job is simple. Persuade them.”
Roger Friedrich’s gaze followed Louise Berfht’s hand. At the end of it stood forty-nine ice statues.
“For now, I ended up getting on the same boat as you.”
“If Your Highness simply coer— no, if you just tell them, won’t they follow?”
If they didn’t want to die, of course.
“They’ll pretend to follow. But that’s all, isn’t it? I want them to do their utmost. Only then will I have something to say to the Demon King.”
Since there was no escaping ten years anyway.
And in the first place, the ones the craftsmen pledged their loyalty to were not Louise Berfht. It was the king, and her elder brother.
“Drive them mad.”
“With golems?”
“Yes, with that splendid blueprint of yours.”
When persuading dwarf craftsmen, there was no surer method than letting them know just how incredible the thing they would create was.
“That was, of course, one of the plans I was intending to use, but....”
“Why add unnecessary words?”
“Even if I become their leader.... I’ve still been in the tower the longest.”
“That’s for you to handle.”
“Yes!”
Roger Friedrich nodded his head vigorously.
* * *
『I’m disappointed. How could you do such a thing?』
When she sent Ernan Hilderan back to the Kingdom of Hilderan, he had handed her a communication device. But he hadn’t expected her to contact him this quickly.
While spouting nonsense that sounded like grasping at clouds.
“What are you talking about?”
『I asked the Demon King to take good care of the Four Heavenly Kings. And you said you understood.』
“So?”
『Then why is it Louise Berfht?』
“No, wait, how did you even hear about that?”
『It’s only natural for the Four Heavenly Kings to stay in contact with each other, isn’t it?』
Oh, for heaven’s sake.
“Fine, let’s say that’s true. So what’s the problem?”
『There’s a problem. A very big one. The Four Heavenly King I asked for was clearly the ‘Giant of Hell.’』
“Yes, and that’s why you asked me to rescue a physically inclined princess. Louise Berfht is top-tier when it comes to physical ability. Not just princesses, but most heroes would be chewed up by her.”
『It’s not that I don’t know that. But Louise Berfht is small! She’s not a Giant of Hell, she’s a Dwarf of Hell!』
“If you said that in front of her, an axe would come flying at you, you know?”
『She’d probably like it. Dwarves think being small is a virtue.』
“Information I don’t particularly want to know. I’m hanging up.”
『Ah, Demon King, wait just a mo—』
How absurd.
Berje Deias clicked his tongue as he cut off the trivial communication and thought about the next matter.
For now, most of the urgent issues had been resolved.
The craftsmen had been secured, and they had brought over all the materials that had been gathered at the merchant company. He had also sent valuable byproducts to Zetoson, so they should be able to obtain everything they needed.
‘Then now the problem is....’
Vivian Blunt.
A pitiful Demon King who had thrown away even his dignity and pride as a Demon King just to survive.
‘A vassal, huh.’
Up until the moment of contact, he had planned to accept the proposal without much trouble. He had thought there was nothing to lose.
But the more he thought about it, the more issues surfaced one by one.
‘Looking only at Arein itself, there’s no big problem.’
Accepting a Demon King who was going to die soon anyway as a vassal wasn’t particularly disgraceful or noteworthy.
People might be a little surprised that the target was another Demon King, but it was perfectly natural for a Demon King to take demon race members as vassals.
‘And Vivian has already dropped hints to other Demon Kings.’
Vivian would be seen as an unusual demon race, and there wouldn’t be any particular arrows aimed back at Berje.
But when viewed externally, outside of Arein, it was a different story.
The tower.
And the position of Demon King.
What happened to a tower when the Demon King, who was its master became someone’s vassal.
And what happened to the position of Demon King?
A Demon King was not a mere demon race member. He was a vanguard commander formally dispatched from the Demon Realm to a lower dimension.
If he accepted Vivian Blunt as a vassal, even if it was voluntary, would Archduke of the Demon Realm Arkaine Blarimph stay quiet?
‘Strictly speaking, there’s no reason to stop a demon race member from voluntarily becoming another demon race member’s vassal, but....’
The problem was that Berje had already been firmly branded as a blockhead in the eyes of Archduke Arkaine. If even a slight pretext appeared, he might latch on relentlessly.
‘No, there’s no way for Archduke Arkaine to know about the creation of a vassal in the first place.’
The issue was the tower. The death of a Demon King was determined by whether the tower was repatriated to the Demon Realm or not.
From the upper ranks’ perspective, if the tower returned, they judged that the Demon King had died.
In other words, if he accepted Vivian as a vassal, the question was whether the tower would remain as it was, or be repatriated to the Demon Realm.
‘If it remains, that’s a problem in its own way, and if it’s repatriated, that’s a problem in its own way.’
The more he agonized over it, the more he questioned whether this was the right decision.
‘Still, I should at least go and see for myself.’
Although speaking with two tongues was considered a desirable virtue of the demon race, at the very least, once he had sworn to the same Demon King upon the First Demon Emperor and The Demon King’s Standard, he needed to make a show of trying.
If Vivian spread unnecessary rumors before she died, reputations among the Demon Kings would plummet endlessly and their relationships would become twisted.
Especially his relationship with Reina Sordein, who valued honor above all else.
* * *
“Welcome!”
The Tower of Lust had been built on one of the countless uninhabited islands of the Seratin Archipelago, which was more commonly known as the Pirate Archipelago than by its original name.
That said, it was not particularly well hidden among the islands either, making its location rather ambiguous.
He had heard that it had suffered greatly from the visit of an assault unit, but now it looked fairly clean and well organized in its own way.
‘Succubi, incubi, a few vampires, and the rest are all monsters.’
Among them, there were especially many succubi.
Following Vivian, who had come out to greet him at the entrance, he arrived at the office on the fifth floor of the tower.
“...What are you doing?”
She looked slightly excited, but the moment they were left alone, she immediately dropped to her knees.
“Hurry up and accept me as your vassal.”
“I never said I would accept you as my vassal.”
“What? Are you saying you’ll break a vow sworn on the First Demon Emperor and The Demon King’s Standard?”
“I only promised that I would come visit your tower. And now, that promise has been kept.”
“My subordinates and I should be quite useful, you know?”
“Who knows?”
The value of succubi and incubi shone not in combat, but in intelligence work.
Using their beautiful and handsome appearances, they naturally approached their targets with honeyed seduction, extracting information through sticky temptation.
The allure of demon race members who made lust their profession was like a swamp that was difficult to escape once you sank into it.
But that was only in other dimensions.
Dimensions where heroes were so scarce that encounters were rare.
In the first place, why had she been driven into such a corner to begin with? There were many reasons, but ultimately, wasn’t it because she couldn’t make use of the succubi’s strengths at all?
Because the number of heroes exceeded three thousand, and was increasing in real time even at this very moment.
“So now you’ve changed your mind?”
“I never had a properly settled mind to begin with.”
“I-I showed you my liver and gall, everything without holding back!”
“That’s why I came. There’s one thing I want to check.”
“Check?”
“First, let’s go outside.”
Before Vivian could reply, Berje Deias stepped out of the office.
“What are you trying to do?”
“If I’m to accept you as my vassal, there are two mountains we must cross.”
“Right. Your will and my will. But both are firm, so haven’t we already crossed them?”
“Your head is full of flowers.”
“That was an insult just now, wasn’t it?”
“One is the other Demon Kings, and the other is the upper ranks, including Archduke of the Demon Realm Arkaine Blarimph.”
“I’m voluntarily saying I’ll become your vassal. Does that really need to be a problem?”
“It wouldn’t be a problem for you. The problem is the tower. If you, a Demon King bound to a tower, become my vassal, what happens to the tower?”
“I don’t think anything will change.”
“Nothing will change?”
“Becoming a vassal doesn’t mean I stop being a Demon King, right?”
“....”
That was true as well.
Still, there was no harm in confirming it beforehand.
Berje Deias walked toward the throne. He sat in the place prepared for the master of the tower. No—he tried to sit.
─!
A powerful repulsive force shoved him away.
[Only the master of the tower may approach.]
A warning sound brushed past his mind.
“So this is what it felt like.”
Blocking access by other Demon Kings was, when one thought about it, the most basic security system.
Berje Deias pushed back against the repulsive force with demonic energy. Sitting on the throne, he closed his eyes and intruded into the tower’s system.
[Warning! An unqualified individual has intruded into the tower system!]
[Warning! Activating defensive mechanisms.]
In an instant—
Kugugugugu—
The tower shook. A stronger resistance than before slammed into Berje Deias’s body.
[Destroying the intruder’s mind.]
Cough—
Berje Deias spat blood and was forced off the throne.
The furious demonic energy drilling into his mind—had he not been thrown off the throne, his brain would have burned up on the spot.
“Uh, I don’t know what you were trying to do, but it looks like something you shouldn’t do.”
“...For once, you’re making sense.”
“And if you were trying to check how the tower system works, wouldn’t it make more sense to check your own instead of doing this here?”
“....”
Huh?
* * *
That was right.
Every Demon King possessed a tower, and Berje Deias could examine the tower system within his own tower.
‘How did I not think of that?’
If he were to make even a small excuse, it would be that his attention had been too fixated on Vivian Blunt and her tower.
[You do not have authorization.]
Large portions of the tower’s authority were concealed.
Fortunately, however, he was able to find the part he wanted.
The repatriation of a tower to the Demon Realm was one of the most basic systems.
‘Unless the Demon King dies, the tower is not repatriated to the Demon Realm.’
‘If the core of the tower receives an impact beyond a certain threshold, it is forcibly repatriated to the Demon Realm.’
Even if Vivian became Berje Deias’s vassal, the tower would not return to the Demon Realm.
Even if Vivian did not die, if humans attacked the tower, it could still be sent back to the Demon Realm.
It was just that no such case had occurred so far.
‘In that case, if the tower is maintained, even if Vivian leaves the tower, no major problem will arise.’
There was the drawback that Vivian would officially become a dead person and have to live in seclusion, but that was none of Berje’s concern.
Thus, having returned to the Tower of Lust, Berje Deias decided to accept Vivian.
“That’s a good decision!”
“I won’t permit that impudent tone from now on.”
“Even so, I’m still a Demon King in name.”
“You’re my vassal now.”
“...Even so, I’m still a Demon King.”
“Well, whatever. Kneel.”
Vivian knelt down and bowed her head. Berje Deias placed his hand on her head.
Enormous demonic energy surged forth.
Her body, her demonic energy, and something even more fundamental than that.
Berje’s demonic energy tore through Vivian’s flesh, devouring her demonic energy and revealing its ferocity.
Vivian did not resist.
And then—
“Guhhh....”
She swallowed a moan as pain like her mind being set ablaze assaulted her.
A vassal contract between demon race members meant subordinating the soul.
Even if the person had no intention to resist, the stronger the demon race member, the higher the rank of the soul, and that naturally resisted.
Yearning for freedom was the instinct of life. The shock and pain caused by that had to be endured entirely by the person themselves.
After quite some time—
“Puhaaa...!”
When the final Sigil was engraved, she released the breath she had been holding.
The binding of the soul firmly shackled Vivian.
The wave of her soul swept across the entire tower.
Her vassals would have felt it. That above the lord they served, an even greater Demon King had come into being.
No change occurred in the tower. It was fortunate that what he had learned by searching the system had been correct.
“Do you regret it?”
“It’s better than dying.”
“I thought a dignified death was also a virtue of a Demon King.”
“Serving one’s lord well is also a true virtue of a vassal. How about tonight?”
Vivian let out a strange, sultry aura. Berje Deias’s brow creased.
“Don’t try any cheap tricks.”
“A succubus using her own specialty is a cheap trick? Since I’ve become your vassal anyway, what’s wrong with doing my best as a vassal?”
“I have no interest in a half-baked thing without a tail or horns.”
“Th-That’s...!”
The words ‘You were the one who demanded one of them!’ did not come out. She was no longer an equal Demon King.
Leaving Vivian grinding her teeth inwardly, Berje Deias approached the throne.
It was simple curiosity.
How would the tower, which had rejected him for lacking qualifications, react this time to him who had returned as the master of its master?
[Warning! An unqualified...Error.]
The mechanical voice abruptly cut off. The tower suddenly began to shake. A revised announcement flowed out once more.
[Recognition - Berje Deias -]
[Superior entity that has subordinated the master of the tower - Vivian Blunt - : Berje Deias -]
[Another master of the tower.]
[Conditions have been met.]
[The two towers are resonating. The tower of - Vivian Blunt - will be subordinated to the tower of the superior entity - Berje Deias -.]
[- The tower of - Berje Deias - can absorb the tower of - Vivian Blunt -.]
[Would you like to absorb it?]
“...?”
What was going on?