Chapter 84: 84

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The battle was reaching its end. The human army which started with 2,000 soldiers now only had roughly a thousand left as they fought back desperately. In terms of manpower, fifty percent of their military might had been wiped out. It would be fine to call this an annihilation. Adding to this, they’ve also been completely surrounded. They have no hope for survival, and yet…….

“How persistent.”

Zepar muttered, visibly unamused. It was true. The humans were being persistent like hunting dogs. At this point, there’s no way they haven’t realized that they’re currently trapped completely. Despite this, they are still struggling desperately.

“Hah, I do not understand. These roaches……. Are they hoping to somehow turn this situation around?”

Rank 58 Ami voiced his complaint as well. He had joined up with us after leading the 500 monsters that were sent to the front. He was the one in charge of luring the imperial army out. It wouldn’t be incorrect to say that he contributed the most to this battle.

Was he no longer feeling desperate to earn feats now? He had much less of a temper now compared to before. Although he would turn his head away as if he were scared whenever he made eye contact with me……. What a bad man. If you’re afraid of me that openly, then that just hurts my feelings. Despite my appearance, I’m the kindest man in the demon world. Don’t avoid me too much, please.

I spoke up.

“They have most likely figured out our goal.”

“They know what our goal is?”

Zepar asked back. On the other hand, Ami squirmed and slowly avoided my gaze. He’s still like this. My feelings are seriously going to get hurt……. Oh well. I have no other choice but to have a calm conversation with the rookie Demon Lords when the opportunity presents itself.

“It is possible that they have pieced things together and figured out that we are the vanguard of the Crescent Alliance. I believe they are earnestly trying to slow us down for as long as possible from getting to the red fortress.”

“I see. So they still have hope despite their desperate circumstance.”

Zepar nodded with an impassive but dignified look on his face. Did Zepar feel affection towards the humans who were struggling till their very last breaths? But hope, is it……?

“It is like Pandora’s box.”

The other Demon Lords looked at me quizzically. Dang it, it seems the myth about Pandora doesn’t exist in this world. Fortunately, the battle was starting to become boring, so I might as well tell them about it as a way to pass the time.

It is said that as long as hope exists, humans can endure the travails of life. A writer of mythology twisted this belief around and created the story about . In truth, hope does not exist anywhere in the world and it is hidden within a box which a God created as a joke. Humans are not aware of this, so they breathe in the dust of life while seeking out hope…….

“So hope itself is a type of calamity for humans.”

Zepar sounded as if the story had moved him slightly. I agreed with the conclusion he reached. This story wasn’t praising the idea of hope at all. The story itself was the cynical laughter of a writer who was warning people that hope is something that will always call upon a calamity.

This myth seemed to fit the taste of Demon Lords as the others chuckled as if they had just been told something interesting. Sheesh. As I thought, Demon Lords are all twisted psychopaths. How would my mother react if she found out that her son was hanging out with these sorts of people? ‘How could my kind son be hanging out with such cruel delinquents……?’ She’d probably utter these words and shed a tear. This truly is troubling. He that touches pitch shall be defiled. That’s right. I should be careful so that my innocence isn’t influenced by these fellows.(TL Note: ‘He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled,’ is a proverb. In general, it is a warning against wickedness. Keep company with evil men and soon you will be ‘tarred with the same brush’ – no more virtuous than they.)

“But I do not like this. Are we so feeble as calamities that they are still able to have hope?”

I chuckled.

“Demon Lords are supposed to be calamities among calamities, we would be shaming His Excellency if we allowed them to have hope.”

“Oh? Dantalian, do you have a plan?”

Zepar looked at me with a gaze filled with interest. This man, it’s hard to tell with how dignified his face is, but he’s quite the pervert. I can hear my mother lamenting from here. It can’t be helped. He’s my superior and I’m a pitiful junior employee. I have no other choice but to obediently obey his commands.

“I apologize, but there is a trump card I have been hiding in case something like this were to happen. If Your Excellency would allow me, then I wish to disclose it here.”

“Very well. I will forgive everything regarding this matter. I am very curious to see what this trump card of yours is and I assume the others are as well.”

Zepar sought the approval of the others around us. Balam, Ami, and the other Demon Lords nodded their heads. With this, my actions were forgiven not only by Zepar, but by every commanding officer of the vanguard as well. The responsibility was shifted skillfully. Are the rookie Demon Lords aware of this? Do they realize that Zepar’s weakness has disappeared due to their single nod? They probably don’t and never will.

A laugh slipped out from between my teeth. Ami must have heard my laughter, as his shoulders trembled. The fact that he reacted to every little thing I did was entertaining. I might get addicted to this. I’m sorry, mother. Your undutiful son has been affected by foul waters…….

My trump card is the given to me by Barbatos. They’re normally in their astral form, but they hover around me so that they can appear at a moment’s notice. Once 12 death knights appeared, the other Demon Lords let out a sound of surprise. Death knights rivaled the power of ogres. However, since they’re as small as humans and are capable of stealth, they are undoubtedly far superior to ogres.

“Splendid! Even a lion hides a claw when fighting with all its strength.”

Zepar applauded. However, contrary to his enthusiastic voice, his eyes were sharp. An ally of his had hidden their full power and preserved it. If we had sent the death knights from the beginning, then the fortresses would have been captured with even more ease. If I were to exaggerate slightly, what I did was no different from benefiting the enemy.

I lowered my head courteously.

“If I may, I wish to end our foes’ final struggle.”

“Understandable. I will allow it.”

I promptly ordered Laura to annihilate the enemy’s high command. The reason why I didn’t order the death knights directly and chose to command them through Laura was so that Laura could get all of the experience points.

I’ve been giving all of the experience points like this to Laura ever since we dealt with the E-rank adventurer party. Thanks to this, Laura now boasts some impressive stats.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Name: Laura De FarneseRace: Human　　 Faction: Dantalian’s Demon Lord ArmyAttribute: Neutral(-10)

Level: 31　　　　Fame: 512Job: Intrigant(B), Scholar(D), Sex slave(D)

Leadership: 81　　Might: 11 　　Intelligence: 84Politics: 10　　Charm: 57　　Technique: 1

Affection: 76Loyalty: 99

*Titles: 1. Duke’s Daughter(Fallen) 2. Prodigy 3. Loyal Subject*Abilities: Horsemanship B, Rhetoric B, Music C, Tactics B+, Geometry D, Operational Art C*Skills: –

Current thought: ‘Hm, this should be slightly easier than breaking a chicken’s neck.’━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

There’s a distinct difference between me who’s still at level 24 and her. As usual, she looks reliable. I ordered Laura to ‘capture the commander known as Kurz Schleiermacher alive’. She gave me a trustworthy salute and departed with the 12 knights.

Everything that unfolded after that was straightforward.

Although there were only 12 of them, it was like a bunch of ogres with small bodies had gathered together and charged in. Additionally, death knights also have an 80% resistance against physical damage. Not only are they similar in terms of power and defense as ogres, but imagine only doing 20% of your normal damage when you attack them with a sword. If your unit didn’t have any mages, then it’d be like a bunch of Grim Reapers had descended on the battlefield.

The monsters flooded into the opening that the death knights had created. The battle ended with that. The humans who managed to survive for almost 40 minutes despite being completely encircled, were wiped out helplessly. Shortly after, I received 5 consecutive notifications that Laura’s level had increased. Her accomplishment of breaking through their formation and annihilating all of their commanding officers must have been acknowledged.

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“This man is Kurz Schleiermacher, Your Lordship.”

Laura returned accompanied by the knights. Her beautiful blonde hair was dyed red in blood. My eyes must truly be rotten to the core since even this seemed beautiful.

“You accursed lepers!”

A human man was being held between two death knights. He was swearing profusely with blood flowing out from his mouth. From the looks of it, his right arm was severed. Laura bowed as if she were truly sorry.

“I apologize. He resisted rather intensely…….”

“Ah, it is fine. Something like an arm can just be grown back.”

“…….”

The rookie Demon Lords looked at me in surprise. Their gazes were saying that arms aren’t like strands of hair. This made me sad. It was only a simple dark joke. Kurz Schleiermacher, who had been literally vomiting blood since earlier, stared at me.

“I am the one who invited you here, Kurz Schleiermacher. I have been interested in you for quite some time now.”

“……For quite some time?”

“That is correct. A very long time.”

I smiled gently.

I then proceeded to check his status.

Bingo.

This is the person I was looking for. His face looked somewhat rough compared to his illustrations from the game, but the same went for almost everyone else. The only weird thing was his attire. I heard that he was a deputy commander, but his outfit made him seem like a noble. There was even a family insignia drawn on his breastplate.

I tilted my head.

“Were you not a commoner?”

“……His Excellency fell in battle.”

“Aha, so an adjutant with a commoner background was pretending to be the commander.”

I had a rough grasp of the situation. Since their supreme commander had fallen in battle, putting the other commanding officers aside, the soldiers would most likely begin to panic. In order to hide his death, Kurz Schleiermacher put on the supreme commander’s armor. As expected of the general who was renowned for having a high sense of responsibility towards his own soldiers in .

“Then that means you are basically the supreme commander of this current human army. Although it is an army that has already been fated for defeat.”

“Ptooey!”

Kurz spat. It was a direct hit on my left eye.

With my smile still on my lips, I wiped the saliva away. It was mixed with a lot of blood, so it was sticky. ……Well, whatever. Since I’ve already confirmed his identity, there’s no reason for me to be interested in him anymore.

I took out a dagger and stabbed it into Kurz’ forehead. The feeling of his skull cracking was transmitted through the dagger.

Kurz’ body lost its strength and it fell to the ground face first. Dirt covered his eyes. In the end, his final words or word was ‘Ptooey!’. Was this not quite the impressive final moment? If other people weren’t watching me right now, I would have probably applauded him.

I waited for a moment. Kurz Schleiermacher was in charge of quite a lot of important scenarios in . By killing him, I will most likely be rewarded with a lot of experience points. This was the last thing I was aiming for through this battle.

However.

“……?”

Even after waiting a couple dozen seconds, I didn’t receive any notifications. I examined Kurz’ corpse in case he wasn’t actually dead. If he wasn’t dead despite his forehead being pierced, then that meant Kurz was a zombie and not a human. How strange.

“What? Why isn’t the Quest Breaker notification appearing?”

Did the way I kept tilting my head appear weird, I wonder. Zepar asked me if something was wrong. I told him it was nothing. I couldn’t really respond in any other way. I couldn’t tell him that I didn’t receive a reward for breaking a quest.

I smiled awkwardly.

“It is nothing. Your Excellency, please declare our victory.”

The battle was over.

Operation ended in a huge success. While we lost only 3 ogres and an assortment of 500 miscellaneous monsters, the humans lost all of their soldiers from the green, blue, gold, and red fortresses. In other words, they lost approximately 3,000 men.

Dawn approached.

The glow of dawn reflected off the ground and the human corpses that covered it. The monsters had been cooking the corpses all night, so they were moving around busily. Several pillars of black smoke billowed up to the sky that was slowly being filled with the light of dawn. I questioned myself as I watched this solemn scene.

“……What did I do wrong?”

Naturally, someone who could answer my question was nowhere to be seen.

In the end, I decided to simply be satisfied with this victory as I returned to my quarters. Zepar and the rookie Demon Lords were rejoicing over our great victory. I’d only ruin the mood if I kept moping around like this. Nevertheless, while I expressed happiness on the outside, a corner of my mind remained ill at ease.

An unexpected sense of discomfort followed behind me like a shadow.

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. As usual, yadda yadda, nothing much to say. My midterms are next week and I guess I should prepare for them. On another note, I’m sort of in like a daze since this is my last semester and I haven’t really decided what I want to do after I graduate. If something happens related to this and it causes me to either stop or slow down greatly, then I’ll make an announcement post. 

I’ll see you guys in the next chapter.

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