by Hyougetsu
“The surprise attack allowed us to limit damage to the enemy’s forces. This was done to prevent the humans from harboring grudges against us. I have opted to let the viceroy retain her position as well, and have obtained her cooperation in managing the city.”
At that, the Demon Lord roared.
“HOW IS THAT SUPERIOR TO RULE THROUGH FORCE!?” The air in the room changed.
Crap. This is the worst question he could have asked. Let me repeat it, demons firmly believed in rule through force. The Demon Lord was no exception. However, my methods went against that philosophy. Since I had attempted something unorthodox, I now needed to prove why my method was superior to the orthodox one. But doing so would make it appear as if I criticized the Demon Lord’s methods.
Impatient, he rumbled loudly, “Answer me!”
“Y-Yes, sir!” I steeled my resolve. At this point, my life was in peril whether I answered or not. “I believe that avoiding needless bloodshed and turning the conquered humans into our allies is the surest way to win, my lord.”
Well, the cat’s out of the bag now. As I’d feared, the dragonkin guards didn’t react favorably to that. On the surface, they looked as stoic as always, but I could smell the bloodlust coming off of them. They were getting ready for a fight.
What do I do now? Should I just try and flee, or take at least a few of them down and hope I’ll get reincarnated again?
However, it appeared the Demon Lord himself didn’t seem too bothered by my explanation. He nodded indifferently and said, “Very well, you are dismissed.”
It appeared my audience was over. The bloodlust that had filled the room moments ago vanished as fast as it had appeared. I heaved a sigh of relief. Guess I’m not dying here after all. Just as I was about to turn to leave, the Demon Lord spoke again.
“Such a method of rule requires ample funds. I will grant you ten thousand silver coins to use as you see fit.”
“You are most gracious, my lord!”
“If you find this to be insufficient, you have my permission to request more.”
In truth, I had just started worrying about how I was going to pay for everything I would need. The fact that the Demon Lord had understood that from my earlier explanation proved that he was much sharper than other demons as well. I can see now why even master respects him.
Gomoviroa, who had been silent until now, finally spoke up, “Are you certain about this, my lord? That is a rather large sum to send over to a single city.”
“I do not mind.” Indeed, the Demon Lord seemed utterly unconcerned about the amount. “The second regiment required no funds to conquer their assigned territories. I see no reason why the ten thousand coins they brought me as spoils should not be sent to a unit who has more need for the money.”
“Understood. Allow me to thank you as well, on behalf of my disciple.”
My master bowed deeply, and this time our audience truly was over.
It was only after we left the Demon Lord’s chambers that I could breathe normally again.
“I thought I was going to die there, Master.”
“You always were quite the coward.”
My master smiled wryly at me from atop my shoulder.
“The Demon Lord may act intimidating, but he’s a surprisingly kind man at heart. Unless you commit a grave blunder, he won’t punish you.”
“I wish you could have told me that earlier...”
I turned away, pouting, and she gently patted my head.
“I expected you to know this already, O inexperienced disciple of mine.”
“Well, excuse me for being inexperienced...”
As we walked out into the courtyard, an ogre appeared from the fog. Dogg. I eyed him warily and said, “Still wanna go?”
But he shook his head and stepped out of the way.
“I dun wanna admit it, but I lost.”
As always, strength was justice. Those who didn’t submit to the strong didn’t live long in the demon world.
“You’re a lot more docile than I expected.”
I kept an eye on him as we passed by, but he didn’t try anything. All he said was, “I’ll knock ya flat next time.”
“So you still wanna go after all?”
I can’t believe he hasn’t learned his lesson even after I beat him to a pulp. But then, I guess that’s how demons are. Personally I just found it a chore, but the strong weren’t allowed to turn away challengers.
“Ya better be ready for me, punk!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Dogg watched me go with a creepy smile on his face.
After we left the castle, my master turned to me and said, “Don’t let your previous victory get to your head. He’s no ordinary ogre.”
“Yeah, he seems like he actually understands battle tactics a little.”
I nodded, and Gomoviroa followed up with, “Not only that, he understands the importance of honing his skills. Because he trains, he’s much faster and stronger than other ogres. He lacks many of the usual weaknesses enemies his size would have.”
“Really?”
“Well, I suppose he would still be no match for a werewolf.” Master happily patted my head. “He may be a genius ogre who will go down in history, but your abilities far outstrip his. After all, you are my disciple.”
She hopped off my shoulder and alighted on the ground.
“Now then, I unfortunately have paperwork I must see to, so I’m afraid this is where we part ways.”
“What about the Bone Spears you left behind?”
“They will listen to your orders. Feel free to use them as you please. Don’t hesitate to call me if you need my assistance. I will come anytime.”
“Okay...”
It was a bit disheartening to know that she’d be leaving, but she was the most skilled commander the demon army had. I could see why she had to go.
“Alright, I’ll do my best to keep Ryunheit in demon hands.”
“Mmm, keep a close on the Meraldia army’s movements. Also, do not underestimate humans. They are capable of more than you know.”
“Yes, Master.”
Gomoviroa waved to me with a smile, then chanted a short spell. A second later I was in Ryunheit, inside my room in the viceroy’s manor, where I had been before I left. I hope things didn’t get out of control while I was gone. I had only been absent for about an hour. At least, I guessed it was around that long. There were no clocks in this world.
“Oh wow, it’s already here.”
Bags of silver coins lay piled up in a corner of the room. It seemed the Demon Lord was expedient, on top of everything else. He must have had one of his mages teleport the money here for me. There were a number of things I wanted to pay for before the day was over, so I was glad he’d worked quickly.
“Alright, let’s get all this administrative stuff out of the way.”
I returned to my human form and got to work. First, I took out a map. Before I did anything else, I needed to figure out my future defense plans. Meraldia was a nation composed of an alliance between 17 city-states. While the Meraldian Senate was the highest authority, they still didn’t wield absolute power over the city-states.
Conquering all of Meraldia was the Demon Lord’s current goal. He had sent his second regiment to conquer Meraldia’s northern cities, while the third regiment had been tasked with taking the south. At present, three of Meraldia’s northern cities and two of their southern cities had fallen.
“The second regiment’s going pretty fast...”
As an aside, the ‘city’ Dogg had captured wasn’t part of the 17 main cities. In fact, it wasn’t a city at all, just a small town, which meant his achievements weren’t particularly relevant here. Though, it was interesting to note that the second regiment was actively conquering key strongholds in addition to their assigned cities, since it meant the army was probably going on a rampage through the country.
Well, all they have to do is kill people and break things. If that was all our missi
on entailed, we would be much faster too. The question was, how would Meraldia’s army respond to this invasion? Meraldia’s primary purpose was to maintain order, and to defend the cities participating in the alliance, but their standing army was small, and had no experience in siege warfare. Furthermore, they couldn’t just dispatch all of their forces and leave the remaining cities unguarded. My guess was that they would siphon a few soldiers from each city and combine them into one force. But even then, they’d only be able to muster a few thousand men, meaning they’d only have enough to attack either the north or the south, not both. At least not at once.
“If I had to guess...they’ll probably go north?”
The second regiment was rampaging across Meraldia’s northern countryside. Because they’d advanced recklessly without heed to the high number of casualties they were racking up, they’d even sacked Schverm, the lynchpin of the northern defense line. Meraldia had supposedly stationed 2000 of their elite heavy cavalry, along with another 3000 of their infantry, so I was actually surprised the second regiment had managed to take it. I can’t imagine how much bloodshed it must have taken to capture the city. The thought left a bad taste in my mouth.
At any rate, if Meraldia was going to be focusing on the north, I wouldn’t have to worry about our defenses for a while, at least. Though maybe I should double-check how many men I can muster, just in case. First, there was my unit of 56 highly trained werewolves. Individually, they were strong, but they were also few in number. Second, I had my 200 canines. However, they were tiny, and unsuited to combat. Even with their larger numbers, they wouldn’t be as effective as my werewolves. Fortunately, my master had also lent me 2000 of her Bone Spears. Those skeleton warriors were tough. Not only were they immune to arrows, their coordination was impeccable. So long as they were here, I had nothing to fear.
All in all, my army was 2256 men strong, but I only had to worry about feeding 256 of those men. Undead warriors had no need for food or sleep. Thank you, Master.
“What’re you grinning about, Veight?”
Startled, I looked up from the map to find Fahn looking down at me.
“Wha? Wh-What do you need, Fahn?”
“Well the thing is, I could use a little help. I don’t know what to do with the Sonnenlicht Order.”
“Oh, those guys.”
There were a number of different religions within Meraldia, but the one with the most influence was the Sonnenlicht Order. Their doctrine espoused cooperation between all and charity for the poor, but many elements of the church ascribed to a much more totalitarian interpretation of the religion’s tenets. Plus, for all their preaching of cooperation and harmony, they were extremely intolerant toward nonbelievers. Fahn toyed with her ponytail as she heaved a weary sigh.
“The bishop’s making all sorts of demands in the name of his faith. Like how we have to let him open prayers again and let his Seekers leave the city so they can continue their pilgrimages and stuff.”
“Hmmm.”
I folded my arms and considered my options. Letting the believers pray wouldn’t cause much of an issue. It was possible they might start plotting something if we let them gather in number, but it wasn’t like forbidding assembly would deter revolutionaries anyway. Allowing them to leave on pilgrimages, however, was a lot harder to approve. The Sonnenlicht Order had a number of sites that they considered holy, and, according to the documents I’d hastily gathered, all believers were required to go on a pilgrimage to at least one every two years.
“Ryunheint’s got a population of about three thousand, and nearly forty percent of them are part of the Order. That’s a good twelve-hundred people.”
“Yeah, and half of them need to do a pilgrimage this year.” Fahn replied with a troubled expression. I totally sympathized. I scratched my neck and weighed the possibilities.
“If we let them go, a hundred or more regular civilians could easily try and slip into the group to escape.”
“Don’t forget that there might be spies mixed into the group when they come back.”
“Oh yeah, didn’t think of that.”
Fahn saw the worried look on my face and said, “Guess we’ll have to forbid it, won’t we?”
“Yeah. But I’d like to avoid restricting their religious practices, if possible.”
I came to a decision and stood up. I’d learned all too well in my past life how much strife and bloodshed could be born from religion.
“Ask the viceroy to gather all the leaders of all the faiths in the city here.”
“All of them?”
Fahn’s eyes went wide with surprise. I nodded firmly.
“The Sonnenlicht Order, the Mondstrahl Church, even those who lead pagan cults.”
As I expected, the meeting had a very awkward start. Everyone shot wary looks at me as they entered the audience chamber. First came the bishop of the Sonnenlicht Order, the spiritual leader of nearly half the city’s population. After that was the Mondstrahl Church’s head medium; about 20% of the city looked to her to connect them with God. Lastly, the shamans who led smaller cults in nature worship or animism filtered in. Because this was a trading city, there were more faiths represented here than in most places. There were even a few people who worshiped werewolves. Unlike the others, they broke out into tears when they saw me. I didn’t mind them getting emotional, but I’d really rather not be worshiped. Once everyone was gathered, the Sonnenlicht Order’s bishop stood up, his stately robes brushing against the ground. He was middle-aged, but he had the build of a fighter.
“My name is Yuhit, I serve as this city’s bishop for the Sonnenlicht Order. You are the demon army’s Commander, Lord Veight, correct?”
“Correct. I am the demon army third regiment’s Vice-Commander, Veight.” I said in a dignified tone, and placed the petition he’d sent on the table in front of me.
“I have read your petition. Before I give you my reply, there is something I wish to tell all of the religious leaders in this city. It is for this reason that I have gathered you here. May I please have a moment of your time?”
The bishop nodded in agreement.
“So long as you give us your reply afterward.”
He’s surprisingly calm. When I’d read the petition I’d gotten the impression that these guys were all religious zealots, but this bishop seemed rather reasonable. Seeing as I had everyone’s attention, I decided to move to the main topic.
“This is how the Demon Lord’s third regiment has decided to handle the matter of religion within Ryunheit.”
Everyone’s expressions stiffened. Well, everyone but the werewolf worshipers, who were hanging on to my every word. No seriously, stop worshiping me. I pointedly avoided meeting their gazes and continued.
“We will respect your religious freedom and allow you to freely practice your faith within the city, just as you have been until now.”
I smiled, and the religious leaders all breathed a sigh of relief. A few of them even smiled back. Whoops, now’s not the time for this. I still need to warn them.
“However, the following three things are hereby forbidden. First, under no circumstances are you to take hostile action against any member of the demon army. Any such act will be seen as an attempt to revolt, and an insult to the Demon Lord’s majesty. That being said, we have no intention of forcing you to worship our Lord. All I ask is that you respect our authority.”
I swept my gaze across the room. No one seemed to find my first rule disagreeable.
“Secondly, you must follow the laws of Ryunheit. So long as I rule, secular law supersedes religious law.”
Again, no one voiced any discontent. Though if anyone was unhappy with my edicts, they’d probably take it up with Airia anyway. But it was the third edict that was the most important.
“Finally, I will not allow any acts of persecution against those of other faiths. If you wish for your religion to be respected, then you must respect other religions in turn.”
Surprisingly, the bishop s
eemed the least taken aback by this proclamation. Because the Sonnenlicht Order had the largest following, there was a huge pressure to convert. Not only because they were the majority, but also because of how hard they pushed their religion onto others. However, the missionaries themselves believed they were doing good, so I thought the bishop would protest this edict. Especially since, from his perspective, it probably looked like I was favoring the other religions over his.
“Our army has no interest in forcibly converting any of you, nor will we allow any other religion to forcibly convert others. Just as we worship the Demon Lord, the citizens of Ryunheit shall be free to worship whichever being they please.”
The werewolf worshipers broke out in tears, but I ignored them. Naturally the bishop didn’t seem too happy, but his reaction was milder than I expected. After all, I had effectively banned them from proselytizing. But that was also why I’d decided to throw them a bone. I smiled at the bishop and said, “However, we will respect the Sonnenlicht believers’ tenets and allow them to go on their pilgrimages. As this is wartime, certain restrictions will be placed on how many can travel and where they can go, but it will all be done in accordance with Ryunheit’s wartime laws. Do you have any objections?”
The bishop quickly painted his frown over with a smile and bowed.
“I humbly thank you for your magnanimity. I did not expect you to allow us such freedom.”
He’s a sly one, alright. Still smiling, I continued.
“All I ask is that you don’t incite a rebellion.”
“Hahaha, but of course.”
Yuhit laughed, and this time there was real human warmth behind it. I still didn’t trust him completely, though. He was someone I’d definitely need to keep an eye on in the future. I’d only called everyone here to explain my decrees, so the meeting ended once I had done so. The other leaders had had a few requests of their own, but I’d forestalled most of them by allowing everyone freedom of expression. While the other leaders were filing out, the Mondstrahl Church’s medium walked up to me. From the looks of it, she was in her mid-thirties. Unlike Yuhit, who had come dressed in ostentatious robes, the medium wore simple civilian clothing.
