Ankoku Kishi Monogatari ~Yuusha wo Taosu Tameni Maou ni Shoukansaremashita~

Chapter 53.2 : Demon King and Goddess

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.