Ankoku Kishi Monogatari (WN)

◆Goddess of Wisdom and Victory, Rena

「Have Shirone and the others left for the Ariadya Republic?」

「Yes, Rena-sama. My subordinates should be meeting up with them right about now.」

Nier told me the hero’s current situation.

Three days ago, Labrys’ familiar had suddenly showed up in Elios and left immediately after handing over a magic crystal to the angel at the gate. Clueless as to what to do, the angel handed it over to Oudith.

Oudith, who had no way to ascertain if the crystal was dangerous or not, entrusted it to Heibos, the God of Technique for examination. Heibos deemed it to be a harmless crystal with a verbal message and some images stored inside.

As Heibos messed around with the crystal, an image of Reiji and his companions trapped inside the labyrinth popped up as the voice uttered, 「I have captured the Hero of Light. If Goddess Rena refuses to become my wife, I’ll kill the hero. You have one month’s time. Choose wisely!」.

After getting to know the crystal’s contents, Oudith gave it to me. Now, I’m worried sick as to what to do about this matter. Other than Oudith and Heibos, the angel also went around and reported to the other Gods. By the time the crystal reached my hands, the entirety of Elios knew about the crystal’s contents! If only Oudith had imposed a gag order, it wouldn’t have turned into such a huge problem, but he wasn’t sensible enough to pass such an order. Thanks to that, I was being monitored by the other Gods who were against me going to Labrys’ place. I could sense their subordinate angels surveilling me 24/7. It was extremely troublesome.

In the first place, why do I need to become Labrys’ wife to save Reiji? Good grief, how can you be so useless… the more I think about that incompetent Reiji, the more by blood boils with anger. To be honest, I just wanted to say “Let him die then.” The world would be a better place if he just died.

However, since everyone in Elios is now aware of this matter, it’ll hurt my reputation if they find out that I let him die and didn’t do anything to help. After all, I’m reputed as a ‘Kind Goddess’ amongst the gods of Elios. I’m definitely not the kind of goddess who’d let her summoned hero die without trying to rescue him.

So, naturally, I descended to the mortal world to inform Shirone and the others of the situation while continuing to monitor the situation. I didn’t want to worry them so I didn’t reveal his demands though.

But then, what do I do now? Oudith is the only one from Elios who can beat Labrys. No other god, including me, can beat him. I’m at a complete loss! I cannot find any solution to this.

I heaved a sigh.

「Rena-sama. As I thought, you really are worried about Reiji, aren’t you? 」

She probably thought I was worried because I sighed.

「Do I look like I am, Nier? 」

「Yes, I feel as if you're rather under weather ever since the Hero got captured.」

「I see……….」

I wanted to tell her “TO HELL WITH REIJI!” The reason for my current mood was Kuna. Ever since I dreamt of the scene of her getting done in by Kuroki until she couldn’t move anymore, I couldn’t sleep at all! Even now, I become aroused at the thought of it. I wanted to tell him “So sly, why did you only do that with that girl!” I wanted Kuroki to do the same things to me as well.

「You really love Reiji-sama, don’t you, Rena-sama?」

For some reason, everyone in Elios treated Reiji and I as if we were a match made in heaven. It’s extremely troublesome when the other Goddesses ask me to introduce Reiji to them. Just what in the world are they planning to do by asking me to introduce Reiji to them if they think he’s mine?

On top of that, all the other male gods, including, Thors, were hostile towards Reiji. All the male gods inside and outside of Elios who’ve tried to court me and make me their wife hate Reiji because they think that he’s a hindrance to their love for me. Though it’s not like I care as long as nothing happens.

Thus, I felt that letting Reiji die would be the best choice. Because If I saved him, Thors and him might get into a fight.

Thors is the beloved son of Faeria-sama. If something happened to that mama’s boy, it would lead to chaos. That’s why it was better not to let Reiji and others too close to Elios.

After all, Faeria-sama might as well be the scariest goddess in all of Elios. Even God King Oudith was no match for her in terms of the influence and power she held. Even though she had no fighting power whatsoever, many of the Elios’ gods were indebted to her, so there are only a few people who could go against her.

Faeria-sama was also the one who raised me after the death of my mother, Melfina. That’s why even I couldn’t bear to go against her. And not just me, practically all of the second generation gods belonging to Holy Mother Mina’s bloodline and her grandchildren were indebted to her.

Thus, all of them also inherited Faeria-sama’s hatred towards Nargol. And this ended up being the cause of the Volgas incident. Even though she was usually a gentle person, her character instantly flipped when it came to Nargol, including the allies in his faction. Casa was probably the only exception, it seems as if even Faeria-sama couldn’t bring herself to hate Casa.

But she hated all the other gods belonging to Nargol’s bloodline, even if they had allied themselves with Oudith, especially Modes. However in Modes’ case, it was more of a fear than hate. Faeria-sama was extremely afraid of Modes, who was even more powerful than Nargol. After all, according to rumours, if Modes felt like it, he could easily destroy Elios.

All of the first generation gods held the same opinion regarding it so I had no other option than to believe them. However, many gods belonging to the same generation as me didn’t believe the same, since they had never seen Modes going all out. This was an extremely dangerous train of thought.

After all, all the first generation Gods along with Faeria-sama became extremely vigilant whenever they allied with Modes. However, I believe that their worries were merely needless anxiety.

If you ask me, it’s simply because Kuroki is MINE. I mean, it’s possible as long as I use my beauty. After all, Kuroki, might be able to defeat Modes.

In the first place, as long as I have Kuroki, Reiji is a useless piece of junk. Thus, when I heard the rumour about Reiji and I being in love, my first thought was 「Ha~h, are you kidding me?」

Part 3

「Reiji and I are kindred souls in terms of defeating the Demon King, nothing more or less than that.」

I shook my head, brushing off her words.

「But, Rena-sama….. Uhhm……」

Nier looked down at my belly.

「Yes, you're right about that…. You can't help but think that I'm lying to you with my stomach looking like this. But, your anxiousness for me, a goddess who fought against the Demon King is needless.」

I replied as I gently brushed my stomach.

I’d never expected THOSE events would lead to this kind of situation. Everything’s Kuroki’s fault. I’ll have him take responsibilities for all the things he did to me and to think that the valkyries from Nier thought that Reiji was the cause of my current situation. It’ll be bad for my reputation if they get to know that I got intimate with the Dark Knight of Modes, someone who was regarded as my enemy. That’s why I never told Nier about my relationship with Kuroki.

「My deepest apologies, Rena-sama. To think that you've already planned this far.」

Nier bowed to me. She had dedicated herself to me ever since my childhood, looks like she was really worried about my condition.

「I'm okay, Nier. Regarding this matter, Reiji and others aside, you must never tell anyone about this, okay?」

The Male Gods who were courting me for my hand in marriage would raise a ruckus once this matter was discovered. That's why I had to keep this matter secret.

「Yes. I understand, Rena-sama. For a human to do these kinds of things to a goddess is…. I will make sure that no one knows about your condition. This matter is a secret between Rena-sama and I.」

I nodded at Nier’s words. This matter could only be disclosed to my most trusted Valkyrie. That was how no further problems would arise from this matter, maybe.

I caressed my belly again. No one would be able to find out about my condition as long as I wore loose clothing, seeing as it wasn’t that apparent yet. Soon enough, within a month to be precise, I would be able to give birth by using magic. In the first place, a divine race’s gestation period was faster than a human’s. Thus, it wouldn’t be a problem.

「Good grief…. To make me suffer like this. Come into being quickly, my little hero.」

◆Demon King Modes

My vassals were gathered inside the throne room. This Demon King’s castle was something that was built by Volgas and Heibos back when he was still alive. The castle was a lavish one, made of black marble and magic jewels which wouldn’t lose to Elios’ palace in terms of splendor.

The throne room of this castle was spacious and magnificence. Whenever I see this splendour, I just can’t thank Volgas and Heibos enough.

Now then, the retainer bowing in front of me was Lord Diehart. He wasn’t supposed to be my retainer though. In fact, he only had to bow and call me ‘Your Majesty’ when we were in a formal setting.

If it was him, I wouldn’t mind even if he called me by my name. However, some of my subordinates wouldn’t consider it to be a pleasant matter. If I didn’t act properly, it would create unnecessary conflict. This is why I allow Lord Diehart to do so, since even he didn’t wish for any unnecessary conflicts.

「Nut was captured by Reiji and the others? 」

I nodded at Lord Diehart’s words. Heibos told me that Nut was captured by the Hero’s party. He realized this because Nut’s figure was caught in the recording that was sent to Elios. It seems as if he was captured by one of the girls in his party. Thus, he got stuck with them in Labrys’ labyrinth as well.

When he was caught, Nut didn’t have the communication magic tool with him, probably discarded by him in fear of getting discovered by the Hero’s party. That’s why it was already too late by the time we noticed his situation.

「That's right, Diehart-dono. Can I ask you to go to save him? 」

「Of course. After all, I'm indebted to Nut too. I would have gone even without Your Majesty’s command.」

I laughed when I heard Lord Diehart say so. As expected of him to be willing to save Nut even without me having to ask him to!

I just couldn’t let one of my subordinates die without even trying to save him. However, most of my other subordinates told me that there was no merit in saving such an insignificant rat. Even Mona thought that Nut was useless now that he was captured by the enemy.

It seems like only Lord Diehart had a different opinion. Only the kind of person who was kind to everyone, no matter who they are and are extremely loyal are worthy of my trust. Although Mona thinks that Diehart might betray me someday, I could not feel any such ambition from him. Rather, he didn’t seem to have any interest in the “Demon King” status.

「Lord Diehart, visit Heibos before you go to the labyrinth. The labyrinth was created by him, after all.」

「Your word is my command, Your Majesty. I'll do everything to bring Nut back.」

「Thank you very much, Lord Diehart. I guess I can leave the planning to you but please don't force yourself to do the impossible.」

「Understood, Your Majesty. I will depart immediately.」

After that, Lord Diehart immediately left, leaving behind just my vassals in the throne room.

「May I ask a question, Your Majesty? Are you okay with losing Lord Diehart? 」

Myurenas, the owner of black wings asked. He was a former angel who deserted the others after becoming estranged from them. Now, he served under Nargol's general after dying his white wings black. However, he was defeated by one of the Hero of Light’s comrades, the girl known as the Sword Maiden and was under health care until recently.

「It's absolutely alright, Lord Myurenas. If everything goes smoothly, he should die alongside  the Hero of light.」

「Lord Ulbard!  What's the meaning of this?  He's the one who protects His Majesty!  」

「It's exactly like I said, Lord Myurenas. His Excellency Diehart is extremely powerful, so powerful that it is dangerous. Moreover, His Excellency is a part of the Demon Race. He doesn't seem to have pledged his allegiance towards His Majesty either.  It might be better for His Majesty if he died instead.」

「Lord Ulbard!  Does that mean you doubt anyone who isn't a part of the Demon Race? 」

Lord Myurenas and Lord Ulbard began to quarrel.

Lord Ulbard is the best sorcerer amongst the entire Demon race, however, his personality has a slight defect. Earlier, he used to be Loughas’ subordinate however, since office work didn’t seem to suit his character, he is now managing the Demon King’s army.

The reality, though, was that Loughas had simply dismissed a troublesome person who couldn’t do an office-related job. In spite of his tremendous talent in sorcery and the enormous amount of mana, his relationship with other officials wasn’t good due to his personality. His battle against the Hero of light didn’t go smoothly either, all because he couldn’t cooperate with the others.

He was beaten black and blue in a magic battle against a person known as the Black Haired Sage, the comrade of the Hero of the light. Although his life was not in danger anymore, it seems he still had some difficulty in walking.

However, Lord Ulbard seems to have misunderstood something. It was true that Lord Diehart was powerful, even Labrys or any of the inhabitants of his labyrinth might not be able to defeat him. But Lord Ulbard was not aware of Lord Diehart’s strength. In fact, no one here was aware of the full extent of his power.

「Both of you, stop your argument ! You're in front of His Majesty!  」

Lady Zephyrus, the Demon race’s female knight intervened. She was Mona’s aide and the leader of the Demon race’s all female Royal Guard. She was supposed to escape along with Mona in case the Demon King’s castle was breached in the battle against the Hero of light. However, because the Hero of light was defeated by Lord Diehart before he could even reach the castle, she didn’t even get the chance to fight against the Hero of light.

「Sorry, Lord Zephyrus.」

「My apologies, Lord Zeph.」

The two of them apologized to her.

But, Ulbard didn't seem to mean it.

「That's right. After all, Lord Myurenas, you're still in the presence of His Majesty. Same goes for you, Lord Ulbard. I, Runfeld, will shut you guys down personally if you dare show such an unsightly figure in front of His Majesty again.」

After Lord Runfeld spoke up, Lord Myurenas and Lord Ulbard shuddered in terror. Lord Runfeld was the kind of person who would do exactly as he said and let alone fight him, they couldn’t defeat Lord Runfeld even if they teamed up against him.

If I had to rank their power, the order would be Lord Runfeld, Lord Zephyrus, Lord Lyurenas and Lord Ulbard. These four were the supreme in the Demon King’s army and were known as the Four Heavenly Kings.

Under the Four Heavenly Kings, were the Eight Demon Generals. Though, in reality, there were only six generals. However, I shall refrain from mentioning this in front of the four of them.

「Lord Ulbard, His Excellency Diehart is someone recognized by His Majesty. You shouldn't act so disrespectful towards him.」

Loughas, the prime minister who was standing beside me rebuked Lord Ulbard for his statements.

「I undertand, Your Excellency. Prime Minister, I won't disrespect His Excellency Diehart again.」

Lord Ulbard spoke as he bowed his head.

I really wanted to warn Lord Ulbard to be careful with his words. If he felt like it, Lord Diehart could send Lord Ulbard into oblivion in just one strike. He really shouldn’t do something that could endanger his life. Well, that’s what I wanted to tell him but I just couldn’t bring myself to. It would have felt like I was using my position as a superior to suppress him and I didn’t want to act like my mother.

I still remember all of it, even the way my older siblings used to carefully observe my mother’s expression before speaking up in order to not anger her accidentally. The only people delighted by her reign were probably Diadona and Zarxis.

Even the neutral gods who didn’t abide by my mother’s rule didn’t want anything to do with her, the Goddess of Destruction, and maintained their distance from her. In fact, they felt relieved when she was killed. After all, even the people who followed my mother did so because of fear, Loughas being one of them.

Many gods were delighted by her death. However, it pains my heart and I still gained nothing in exchange other than the sin of killing my own mother.

None of Mina’s descendents love me. On the contrary, my existence was treated as dangerous and I was banished due to their hatred towards me. They even sent their hero to assassinate me. Well, this is probably my punishment for murdering my mother.

The sin of killing her weighs on my mind even now. I often find myself wondering about how my mother must have felt after she realized that she was betrayed by her beloved son. I guess it won’t be long before I die the same way. My breath hitched as I thought of how the Demon Race, who were like my own children might end up betraying me in the end. Even Mona might abandon me some day. Considering all of this, worrying about Lord Diehart possibly betraying me was pointless.

In fact, Lord Diehart’s situation right now was similar to mine back when I was in Elios. Despite the fact that he saved our lives, everyone still considered him a threat.

I don’t want him to go through the same thing as I did. So, I’m going to do everything within my power to prevent that. But even if I say it out loud, no one will heed my words. Anyway, I detest the idea of forcing people to do my bidding by using my power.

Even if Lord Diehart betrayed me, I’d just let him end my life. After all, that’s the proper ending for a sinner who killed his own mother.

I recalled his sincere expression. Through my personal experience, I know that Lord Diehart was just like me, so I wouldn’t mind if it were him who ended up killing me.

That’s why, Lord Diehart, you must come back alive. You must return and punish this sinful Modes.

◆Dark Knight, Kuroki

I walked down the spacious and artistic corridor of the Demon King’s castle. The floor and walls were carved out of black marble and decorated with majestic ornaments. The light emitted by the several magic jewels enhanced its beauty even more, it was as if I was walking through a galaxy. I realized now why the Demon King’s castle was also known as the Castle of Stars.

Walking through the corridor helped me forget the unpleasant things from before. I recalled the audience I took part in a while ago. Ulbard didn’t even try to hide his hostility towards me. Zephyrus and Runfeld seemed to be hostile too, however, their hatred wasn’t as apparent as Ulbard’s. The only person who didn’t seem to hate me was Myurenas but that’s merely because he wasn’t a part of the Demon Race. Unlike the ruling class of Nargol, the Demon Race, Myurenas is a fallen angel who betrayed Elios. Since both of us don’t belong to the Demon Race, he didn’t seem to hate me.

Except for him, the other three were high ranking Daemons. Looks like they couldn’t accept the fact that a mere newcomer like me, that just came in, gained Modes’ trust and a higher position than them. In fact, even the female demon knights, my subordinates, were directing their hostility towards me.

Well, they were Mona’s former subordinates, after all. Mona clearly hated me, so of course her hatred would influence the female knights’ feelings towards me as well.

According to Guno, Mona had ordered them to spy on me. As a result, they had witnessed the moment the Wicked Dragon inside me awakened, which made Mona and Zephyrus hate me even more. After all, it made Guno and the other female knights not want to go back to work under Mona. Ah, what should I do about this situation? [Ed: hold up, what kind of awareness is this]

「Please wait a minute, Your Excellency Diehart! ! 」

Someone called from behind.

When I turned around, I saw a girl running towards me.

「Well, if it isn't General Putina. What's the matter? 」

The girl’s name was Putina. Despite looking like a mere ten year old in her current form, she was, in fact, a werebear. Although I never saw her true form before, I heard that she turns into a ten meter tall bear when she transforms. She was a demon beast user, which meant she could understand the demon beasts without need for verbal communication. Thus, she had command over the demon beasts army and was known as the Demon Beast General, making her one of the Eight Demon Generals.

By the way, the so called Demon King’s army was actually composed of armies of several kingdoms who had pledged their allegiance to Modes and thus, the army was under his direct control. Nargol was actually using feudalism as a way of governance, with Demon King Modes right at the top. Well, it just turned out that way because of the rather lax relationship between the Demon King, the feudal lords and the vassals.

The Karon Kingdom was a good example of this. Although Datie, the ruler of the Karon Kingdom had sworn allegiance to Modes, the goblins of the Karon Kingdom did not directly serve under Modes. In short, their vassals were not the Demon King’s vassals since Karon Kingdom had its own, independent organizational structures.

Modes doesn’t interfere with their domestic affairs. The Karon Kingdom’s problems are their problems, not Nargol’s, so the Demon King did not intervene in their matters.

It was the same for all the other kingdoms who had sworn their allegiance to Modes. Amongst these there were a few kingdoms of trolls and orcs who had their separate political systems. Only about thirty percent of Nargol was under Modes’ direct supervision.

However, despite rejecting a centralized authoritarian power structure, Modes’ influence was, by no means, weak. His power as the Demon King was absolute, which was why there were no mutinies in Nargol.

The army under Modes's direct supervision was far more powerful compared to the combined armies of the other kingdoms.

The Order of Dark Knights was composed of the higher species of the Demon Race, the Daemon, while the army of eight generals was composed of the lower ranks of the Demon race.

The Order of Dark Knights was led by four knights who were renowned as the Four Heavenly Kings.

And the ones who led the armies composed of lower-ranking demon races were the generals who came from various races, known as the Eight Demon Generals.

Putina was one of those Eight Demon Generals.

Originally, the general of the Beast army was her mother but she perished in battle against Reiji. Putina replaced her mother as the general.

「The thing is, I wanted to express my gratitude to Your Excellency for the sweets.」

「Ah, that matter, huh? Please don't mind it, General Putina. That's also the expression of my gratitude to you.」

Putina was the one who gave me the Queen Salmon and honey when I was looking for food for Regena and the others.

Thanks to that, I secured the meal for Regena and her relatives.

After Regena and her relatives had gone to Shirone's place, I made some sweets with the leftover honey and gave it to Putina, to express my gratitude. It seemed that Putina wanted to thank me for the sweets.

「Would you make it for me again if I give you the honey, Your Excellency? 」

「Of course, General Putina.」

「YA~Y!! Thank you very much, Your Excellency!!」

Putina embraced me as she yelled so with a delighted voice.

I caressed Putina's head.

I didn't know her real age since she was a werebear.

Putina looked very much like a human girl at the moment. When she asked me for sweets, her appearance was that of an innocent [loli]girl.

So cute.

Thanks to the sweets I assumed I had one less enemy to worry about.

The lower ranks of the demon race didn't have much hostility towards me. Or rather, they feared the Daemon race, the high ranking one.

That might be the reason why they easily opened up to me when I treated them kindly.

「Oh, right!! Can I go with you too when you make the sweets? Let me help Your Excellency!! 」

Putina smiled at me.

「Is it really okay? You're a General of the Demon King's Army. Will it become a problem if you leave your post? 」

Despite her position, she ranked lower than the Four Heavenly Kings, such as Runfeld. It would be bad if she left Nargol.

「Well… I guess I can't, then. Let's not be so formal to each other.」

Putina smiled again.

But I really couldn't let her come along since she didn't have permission to leave her post.

As I was pondering the best way to reject her request, I sensed someone approaching us.

「Please wait, General Putina. Your Excellency is troubled by your request to come along.」

It was a female Dark Elf.

I couldn't find a safe area to look at her since she wore a black bikini armor.

She was the General of the Ghost Army, Shirley. She was one of the Eight Demon Generals from the Dark Elf race.

Dark Elves were born from an elf who fell in love with a Daemon male. The elf woman then chased after her beloved man all the way to Nargol and lived in this place since then, giving birth to a new race.

It was theorized that the dark indigo color of a Dark Elf's skin was the influence of the Daemon blood flowing through their veins.

Since they were originally Elves, they too could manipulate spirits.

But, according to them, the spirits didn't cooperate at all when Reiji and the others attacked Nargol. They had been completely useless in the previous battle.

The spirits probably didn't attack the intruders because of the presence of a powerful spirit user in Reiji's party.

Similar to Putina, Shirley also helped me secure food for Regena and her relatives.

The Dark Elves were the supervisors of the fruit trees and vegetable gardens of the Demon King. I received tons of vegetables and fruits from Shirley.

At the time I was so delighted that I cooked some vegetable dishes from what Shirley had brought. I discovered that Dark Elves were very enthusiastic about trying out new dishes.

We were on good terms thanks to that.

「Shirley!! Do you realize that you're obstructing my relationship with His Excellency?!」

Putina intimidated Shirley after she had separated herself from me. She had an overwhelming advantage in terms of combat experience.

Shirley's face cramped after hearing Putina's threat.

「I am not, General Putina… We are the Generals of His Majesty's army. We might receive a severe reminder from Runfeld-sama if we act on our own convenience.」

Putina stopped her threats as soon as Shirley brought out Runfeld's name.

「Uuh… You're right. Run-sama sure is scary.」

Putina was getting scared just by thinking about Runfeld. Seeing how scared she was made me sympathize with Runfeld.

All he did was raise the discipline for the sake of the Demon King's army. He definitely wasn't a bad person. He was just scary.

「Therefore, what do you think about taking our female subordinates, Your Excellency? I think our girls will definitely be useful for Your Excellency's night activities.」

Shirley bowed as she said so.

Why in the world did she emphasize the night activities? I couldn't help but retort inside.

But that would mean trouble.

A General acting on their own was definitely bad, but a General giving in to their subordinates' demands wasn't good either.

Guno and the other female knights would surely make a ruckus over this matter.

I couldn't just take His Majesty's direct subordinate. Things would certainly turn into a quarrel once I took in those Dark Elves.

The problem lay in how to refuse General Shirley's offer.

「Isn't that an interesting proposal, Your Excellency? 」

Shirley was already leaning closer to me while I was still pondering about how to reject her offer.

「WOAH!! General Shirley!! 」

「Hey, Shirley!! Don't you realize that you're troubling His Excellency? 」

Putina also came closer and embraced me.

Crap. I was really in a pinch. I wanted to smile when Putina embraced me, but Shirley was scary. Her tits and butt, to be exact.

 CALM DOWN――! CALM DOWN――! PLEASE CALM DOWN, O FEROCIOUS DRAGON IN ME―!

I was frantically counting prime numbers in my head: 4, 6, 8, 1—- F#ck, those aren't prime numbers.

「Hey, what are you doing here? 」

Someone called out to us in the middle of this difficult situation.

「FELTON!! Guede!! 」

「General Felton!! General Guede!! 」

Putina and Shirley separated themselves from me as soon as they saw those two approaching us.

The ones who called us were Heavenly Demon General Felton and Abyss Demon General Guede.

「It seems you guys were in the middle of flirting, I see. Can you allow me to join too? 」

Felton smiled at Shirley and Putina as he spoke to them, but his eyes weren't smiling at all. It seemed like Felton was always like this.

He never truly smiled from the bottom of his heart, despite always wearing a smile on his face.

Felton was a male of the Kale race. They were a lower-ranking Demon Race on the same level as the Imp and the Empusa race.

Two bat-like black giant wings sprouted from his back and two horns from his forehead. Their figure was closer to the depiction of the Devil from Earth.

Felton was a warrior well versed in magic. He wore a really cool looking vampire-like robe and kept his sword strapped to his waist.

His subordinates were composed of lower-ranking demons. He was also the leader of the Eight Demon Generals.

During the battle against Reiji, he went as Runfeld's second-in-command. He was also the one who carried the heavily wounded Runfeld on his back all the way to the Demon King's castle.

During that time, his subordinates were annihilated while trying to hold back Reiji and the others. But thanks to his subordinates' sacrifice, the Order of Dark Knights escaped destruction.

Guede, who came along with him, was a former member of the kale race, the General of the Undead.

He who excelled at Necromancy turned himself into the undead for a better mastery of his own power. His body was shrouded from head to toe and underneath it, there was only a mist-like black shadow.

Physical attacks didn't work on him, but the person himself was quite fragile.

He was the one who led more than 1 million undead, the biggest army amongst the Eight Demon Generals.

And yet, that army was annihilated by Reiji in a second. Guede himself was almost permanently killed by Reiji if not for Modes using his magic to revive the General.

Because they were originally from the same race, Guede often moved alongside Felton.

「General Putina, General Shirley. Don't you think that your actions are troubling His Excellency? I think it's better if you step aside when things reach this point.」

Felton smiled at them.

「Since His Excellency has his own business, how about I keep you company instead? 」

Felton was getting closer to Putina and Shirley, which made both of them show an unpleasant expression.

「Gugugu, I understand. Let's talk about this matter again later.」

「…. Likewise, me too.」

Putina and Shirley went away as if trying to escape from this place.

Felton always had a scary look on his face. His smile basically empowered his scariness. For this reason, many people ran away from him.

But when I tried to talk to him, he was surprisingly nice to talk to. It felt like he purposely played the bad guy role to protect the order within the Demon King's army.

「Thank you very much, General Felton.」

I bowed to Felton.

「Don't mention it. I really did nothing in this case. Nevertheless, you really were in a pinch just now, Your Excellency.」

「Yes. I'm grateful that they show goodwill toward me, but…」

But trying to follow me of their own convenience was bound to create trouble.

In the first place, I wanted to get along with them rather than living surrounded by enemies from all sides.

I was happy for their goodwill, but such an act was meaningless if it only caused problems for those who took care of their neglected work.

And those who had to take care of their General's work would end up hating me, too.   Although I wasn't optimistic enough to try to befriend everyone, I wanted to at least avoid major disputes with the others.

For this reason, I was extremely grateful for Felton's help.

And Felton was also one of the few of the Demon Race who didn't hate me. Guede, who stood behind him, didn't have the same impression towards me, but he wasn't as hostile as Ulbard.

Perhaps suspecting Felton's goodwill towards me was rude, considering his show of kindness, so I accepted his actions as a pure show of goodwill towards me.

「If Your Excellency needs some help, this Felton will always be ready to assist you.」

「Thank you very much, General Felton. I shall take my leave here.」

I bowed to Felton as I said so, and then turned around to leave.

There were so many kinds of people in the Demon King's Army. And I wasn't the type of person who was loved by all. But I wouldn't betray anyone who showed goodwill toward me. I would help them as much as I could.

That was why I embarked on a journey to save Nut.

◆ Heavenly Demon General, Felton

「How rare of you to do that, Felton. 」

「What are you talking about, Guede? 」

「The matter of His Excellency Diehart, of course. Among us, aren't you the one who regards His Excellency as dangerous the most? And here you are, worrying about him. What's the matter? 」

I laughed at Guede's question.

「His Excellency is the one who defeated the Hero of Light, who we failed to defeat. He's also a person trusted by His Majesty. It's natural for me to worry about him.」

「Do you really think so? I feel that you have another reason.」

I really couldn't deceive Guede. I should just tell him the truth.

「Guede… His Excellency's current situation is similar to His Majesty's situation back in Elios.」

Guede tilted his head, confused.

「Similar to… His Majesty? What do you mean? 」

「Please think about it, Guede. A long time ago, when he still lived in Elios, His Majesty was regarded as a dangerous being by the Gods of Elios. Even though His Majesty was their savior. Don't you think that the Demon King of that time and the current situation of His Excellency are rather similar? 」

I still felt angry whenever I recalled that matter. How dare those shitty Elios Gods treat His Majesty, the one who saved their asses, like a hindrance.

Moreover, they went as far as banishing His Majesty from Elios.

Unforgivable.

I'd make sure to let those guys experience the same pain His Majesty did. And His Excellency's power was necessary to realize that.

That was why I accepted His Excellency as His Majesty's ally.

It was a foolish thing to do, making him an enemy just because of stupid jealousy.

I explained my reasoning to Guede.

「I see…」

「That's right, Guede. And speaking of those annoying Elios Gods, they went as far as sending that annoying Hero. Just what in the hell are those idiots trying to do to His Majesty? Just because they told that Hero that His Majesty was dangerous… And it's only thanks to His Excellency's efforts that nothing dangerous happened to His Majesty. His Excellency himself is building a good friendship with His Majesty. That's why we should avoid making an enemy of him.」

「I see. So that's the reason why you're worrying about His Excellency…」

I nodded to Guede.

Maybe His Majesty also thought the same. Maybe he could see his own situation in Elios back then overlapping with His Excellency Diehart's current situation.

「That's right, Guede. We must not let His Excellency suffer from the same experience as His Majesty. We shouldn't make the same mistake as those jerks in Elios.」

Yes. We weren't the same as those Elios Gods, existences that should just be eradicated by their own foolishness.

「Uhm, I understand your consideration. By the way, Felton. Are you going to mess up those humans again? 」

「Of course, Guede. His Majesty might not wish to have anything to do with those Elios jerks, but I'm different. I won't be satisfied unless I torment their beloved humans.」

Unbeknownst to His Majesty, I secretly snuck in some of my subordinates into human settlements. Naturally, it was to torment those humans.

Things like manipulating the king of a country from behind the scenes to make the citizens in his country suffer or poisoning his own citizens.

I couldn't do it too openly since I kept this as a secret from His Majesty.

Those Elios chaps wanted the humans to prosper. I would do my best to prevent them from reaching their goal, because His Majesty was the right successor of this world. Soon, the time would come for us to destroy those Elios bastards.

I smiled from the bottom of my heart when I thought of that future.

◆ Queen of Darkness, Mona.

「I see, Zeph. Guno failed in her mission, huh…」

「My deepest apologies, Mona-sama. It seems Guno became His Excellency Diehart's slave. She is no longer useful to you, Mona-sama. This matter is entirely my fault. Please punish this one for her failure.」

Zephyr of the Four Heavenly Kings reported so to me while bowing her head.

My plan was anticipated by Diehart. [TL: It wasn't!!]

My order for Guno and her subordinates was to find Diehart's weakness. Because no matter how powerful someone is, they surely had a weakness.

Thus, I could quickly deal with him if he later became Modes-sama's enemy.

Nevertheless, he made his move faster than me and turned Guno and the others into his slaves.

[TL: You know what kind of slave, right?] 

They were turned into his loyal slaves in just one day after I sent them to spy on him.

[TL: …………….. Good Job Dic— I mean Kuroki's Little Dragon]

「Good grief, even if they are part of the Demon Race… In the end, they're just women. What a useless bunch.」

Zeph trembled once I said those words.

I looked at Zeph with a cold, piercing gaze.

Those good-for-nothing bunch of sluts should just die.

Honestly speaking, I wanted to punish Zeph for her failure. But Zephy was a precious subordinate given to me by Modes to protect me.

I had to ask Modes-sama if I could punish her. The only problem was that I couldn't find any reason to do it.

「Well, just let them be. You may leave, Zeph.」

Zeph left the room after bowing to me.

Good grief. Those Daemons were just useless.

What should I do now? That man was dangerous. He enslaved those female Daemons in just one day.

I shuddered just by thinking about that man turning into our enemy. If that was to happen, my dear Modes-sama would be put in real, mortal danger.

It was still fine for now, but who knew what would happen in the future.

Even if my fear became reality, I would definitely protect Modes-sama.

My everything existed only for Modes-sama.