NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Feeling physically worn out, Citri decided to take a day off and return tomorrow. Nahun, who had returned to the office, sat down in a chair and contemplated the events that had just transpired.
If Citri’s words were true, how did he know about such magic? Understanding the reason wasn’t particularly difficult.
“Considering the identity of the character I possessed, Nahun, it’s quite simple.”
According to the memories that flowed into him after possessing this body, Nahun was a great demon, perhaps even a higher being than the Demon King himself, not only among the demon race.
The great demon was a mysterious being that was barely revealed in Ebel Queen Maker. It was merely described as a great, mystical, and profoundly powerful existence that had lived since ancient times.
Why such a great demon was selected as a playable character was secondary; the important part was that Nahun, despite being a great demon, was wary of the existence of great demons.
In the game, there was only one instance where a great demon directly manifested. It appeared when the player, having diligently raised Citri, was offered a branching choice that would determine the ending: the “Contract of Souls.”
If the player contracts with the great demon at this point, Citri would become the great demon’s minion, dedicating the demon realm that was conquered to it and falling into servitude for life. This was more or less a bad ending.
“I need to prevent that kind of ending.”
Though it was an ending of conquering the demon realm, Nahun didn’t like the idea of doing it under the great demon’s command. As a player, his favorite endings were those where Citri did something for herself.
In particular, the ending where Citri, with the player’s help, overcame all trials and stood at the pinnacle as the “King of the Demon Realm” was his favorite.
“If I need to see the ending to return, I must end the story with the best ending.”
That was Nahun’s thought. He had taken Citri under his wing and aimed to lead her to become an ally. The goal was to follow the flow of the original game as much as possible while laying the groundwork for achieving the King of the Demon Realm ending.
Of course, reality wasn’t as simple as clicking choices in a game. What could be resolved by simply pressing a button in the game had to be handled by Nahun through direct involvement and persuasion.
“The road ahead looks tough.”
Muttering to himself with a hint of self-deprecation, Nahun examined the stack of documents on his desk. Originally, tasks that Cain had taken over from Citri, Nahun had now inherited some of them on this occasion.
Since he had brought Citri into an alliance, he decided it would be better for him to get involved in the internal affairs of the Demon King’s Castle. That way, he could respond quickly to Citri’s future actions.
Cain didn’t seem overly wary, unlike when he had taken over financial authority. Perhaps it was because he had already shown results related to Citri in the past.
“Well then…”
Nahun reviewed the documents. The tasks he had taken over from Cain were concerning “military management” and some issues related to governance policies of the 72nd floor.
The military tasks were naturally inherited to manage Citri’s newly integrated soldiers. Although there was an excellent talent in Lin El Lazine, she might not be enough to exercise complete control.
“Of course, Citri had adequately informed the integrated soldiers…”
Now, the problem was with the existing military personnel. There would surely be those who weren’t pleased about suddenly having foes turned allies.
“It seems persuading them will be my job.”
Fortunately, Lin’s reports hadn’t recorded any significant complaints yet. Before Citri had spoken to them yesterday, the newly integrated soldiers might have caused some trouble, but the absence of major grievances was surprising.
“That must mean they are still well-controlled.”
It made sense.
The only surviving legion of the predecessor Seir von Debata’s forces, the “4th Legion.” It was the only properly equipped legion under Seere Huiha, and the capabilities of its officers were so strong that one couldn’t believe they were serving under the 72nd floor’s Demon King.
Having ranked second in the predecessor’s hierarchy, the commander and vice-commander of the 4th Legion had been active since then, so it was only natural. It was obvious how well the soldiers would follow the commands of such veterans.
Since Lin and Baruna weren’t overwhelmed by the current number of soldiers, there likely wouldn’t be any issues for a while.
“That’s a relief. Now…”
The next agenda was to look at the reports from each village of the 72nd floor. Many indicated a shortage of arable land and land for raising livestock.
Due to the nature of the hierarchy, the higher-ranked the Demon King, the smaller the scale became below. Consequently, the 72nd floor, being the highest and closest to the human realm and therefore dangerous, had a smaller floor scale.
If we take countries on Earth as an example, if the 1st floor ruled by the top-ranked Demon King was Russia, the 72nd floor would be Switzerland. That was how significant the difference in scale was.
Of course, just because a land area is vast doesn’t mean it is prosperous, but for a Demon King, the larger the area controlled, the more advantageous it was. With a larger area, more demons could be accommodated, and issues like land shortages that were currently problematic on the 72nd floor would not arise.
“Is territorial expansion indeed the problem?”
Moreover, staying on the 72nd floor was risky, as it was the closest to the human realm. The Ebel Queen Maker world had a worldview where the Heavens, the human realm, and the Demon World were interconnected. That meant if you went up from the human realm, you reached the Heavens, and if you went down, you reached the Demon World.
There were pathways existing here and there in the human realm connecting the two worlds, which led to unexpected invasions of the Demon World by humans. Of course, although there were quite a few pathways from the 72nd floor to the human realm…
“We have no reason to go.”
The 72nd floor’s Demon King was the lowest-ranked Demon King, and as such, their force was also small. If they mistakenly invaded the human realm, they could find themselves dealing with severe repercussions.
“If territorial expansion’s first step is…”
The most suitable target was undoubtedly the 71st floor. However, given that they had formed an alliance with Citri, that was impossible, so the next priority would logically be the next layer.
“70th floor.”
The 70th floor, ruled by the Demon King Andromalius. While it was the weakest force, it couldn’t be underestimated.
“It is still significantly stronger than our own.”
Even if they would combine forces with Citri, they could still be outmatched. The difference in strength between just one floor could be extreme.
“I wonder if there’s a clever plan available.”
As Nahun lightly closed his eyes to think, a report came into his view. After staring at it for a moment, Nahun’s eyes widened, and he grabbed the document.
“This is…”
A brilliant idea that Nahun had longed for sprang to mind.
#
While Nahun was going through his tasks, the tightly shut door of the office was slightly opened.
“Huh?”
“Teacher!”
“Seere?”
The one who entered was Seere. Clutching a white rice cake in her hand, she hurried over to Nahun. She then stretched out a hand towards him.
“Are you trying to come up?”
“Yes!”
With no choice but to let Seere sit on his lap, she smiled cheerfully as if satisfied.
However, Seere wasn’t the only one who had come. She was accompanied by a striking woman with cat ears and flowing hair. Though her petite frame seemed distant from martial prowess, she was a stronger swordswoman than anyone under Seere.
“I apologize, Your Majesty. His Highness asked me to accompany her…”
“It’s quite alright, El Laze.”
El Laze, commander of the 4th Legion, stood before him.
Although she had been told to use his name instead of the regal title “Your Majesty,” perhaps due to a slightly rigid nature, Lin still insisted on using formal titles.
Nahun asked Lin,
“What brings you here today, Commander?”
“I came to discuss something.”
Lin replied that way and added,
“And please drop the honorifics, Your Majesty. There is no need to be formal with the teacher of your lord.”
“In that case, you may call me by my name instead of the formal title like ‘Your Majesty.’ I mentioned before that I don’t really like stiff titles.”
“…Understood, Nahun.”
Nahun nodded, satisfied with Lin’s title, and asked what the main topic was. Lin cautiously began to speak.
“This is about the soldiers who have been integrated this time.”
“Is there trouble again?”
“No, nothing like that. I simply have a suggestion regarding their affiliation.”
Nahun gestured for Lin to continue.
“Rather than placing them under our 4th Legion, it would be better to create a separate legion.”
“A new legion, you say?”
“It would be advantageous.”
Nahun narrowed his eyes slightly, pondering the reason behind that. Perhaps misinterpreting Nahun’s expression, Lin answered before he could question.
“As you know, there have been minor quarrels and grievances between the integrated soldiers and existing soldiers. To prevent that, and to earn more loyalty from the integrated soldiers towards Her Highness Citri, it would be better to create a separate legion.”
“What reason makes you think that will happen?”
“When they hear that a new legion was established for their sake, how do you think the soldiers will feel about Her Highness?”
Nahun nodded slightly, signifying that he understood. Hearing that a new position was created for them would certainly lead the soldiers to have a far more positive view of Citri. There was no reason for Nahun to refuse Lin’s suggestion.
Although there would be some need for operational funding for the new legion, that could easily be resolved.
“I can just borrow some from Citri.”
Nahun had a convenient money source.
Seeing that Lin thought he hadn’t fully accepted her idea, she continued to speak.
“After all, there are quite a lot of integrated soldiers. It would be easier to manage by separating them entirely.”
“Alright, I’ll accept the commander’s suggestion.”
“Thank you.”
Nahun smiled with satisfaction. He was pleased to have someone capable of offering such good suggestions.
“Actually, I also had something to ask the commander.”
“To me?”
Nahun brought up the issue he’d been contemplating earlier, concerning territorial expansion.
“As you might know, we urgently need to secure territory.”
“Nahun, what do you mean…?”
“But the closest 71st floor is in an alliance with us.”
Lin seemed to predict what he was about to say. Nahun urged her to answer honestly.
“So I would like to hear your opinion. Commander El Laze, do you think we can conquer the 70th floor?”
“It is impossible.”
Her answer was as sharp as a blade. Nahun then asked her,
“Is it not possible with you here?”
“I can’t exactly face tens of thousands of soldiers alone. Ever since the predecessor vanished, our forces have diminished significantly. With our current strength, even the 71st floor would be precarious, let alone the 70th.”
The 71st floor was an allied territory, and Citri was still an essential aide for future endeavors. There was no chance they could discard her now. Nahun inquired further.
“What if we merge forces with Citri’s power?”
“That would increase the possibility, but I still want to stress the difficulties. The army ruling the 70th floor under Andromalius numbers nearly 150,000 based on what I know, whereas our united army might barely reach 10,000 at most. Citri’s army might be larger than ours, but it wouldn’t exceed fivefold.”
Lin looked directly at Nahun, firmly asserting with her eyes that this was simply not feasible.
“We are numerically at a disadvantage. It would be foolish to start an all-out war.”
“…Does that mean it might work if it’s not a frontal conflict?”
“If you can win without confronting 150,000 soldiers head-on, then that might be possible. But how would you conquer the floor without a direct confrontation?”
Lin’s question made Nahun smirk.
“It seems I’ll need to resort to subterfuge.”
“…Subterfuge?”
“The kind of subterfuge that looks beautiful like a peacock!”
Seere, who had been quietly listening, chimed in. It seemed she had confused the terms for “subterfuge” and “peacock,” thinking she was contributing something related to that.
Nahun chuckled as he stroked Seere’s head.
“Not that kind of subterfuge.”
“No?”
Seeing Seere tilt her head, Nahun responded with a smile. He then continued speaking to Lin.
“I came across some news while reading the reports.”
Nahun handed Lin a sheet of paper. She took it, looked it over, and gasped in surprise. She then quickly raised her head to look at Nahun.
“Nahun, this is…”
“Don’t you think we could find a way to utilize that?”
Lin, a veteran who had been active since the predecessor’s time, was sharp. She immediately caught onto Nahun’s intention and replied.
“I will filter them down to those specialized in infiltration.”
“And ask Epsilon to help as well.”
Lin looked at him with a slightly surprised expression when he mentioned to consult Epsilon.
“We must not let any noise emerge during the contact process.”
“It will be fine.”
Nahun smiled confidently at Lin’s concerns, as if to say that what she worried about would not come to pass.
“They will follow orders now.”