A Demon Lord’s Tale: Dungeons, Monster Girls, and Heartwarming Bliss

CH 244

Default Dyslexic Roboto Lora

br>“What do you mean?”
“Your combat prowess is ridiculous.
Normally, men of your caliber aren’t expected to have any other skills, but you’ve proven, through this, that you’re also highly proficient at gathering information.
The fact that you’ve gathered this much information all by yourself almost leads me to suspect that you’re all-seeing.”
“…Alright, fair enough.
I do seem kinda terrifying, if you put it that way,” I said with a bit of a smile.
Knight Lady’s guess was surprisingly accurate.
I wasn’t exactly all-seeing, but I was able to see and hear whatever I wanted so long as I deployed my evil eyes and evil ears appropriately.

The days that I’d spent in Alshir were busy.
I was always doing something or another behind the scenes, regardless of whether I was learning etiquette, getting the art of dance hammered into me, or playing house with Enne and the princess.
Toiling away at espionage ultimately proved itself an excellent investment.
The retard I was up against had never even considered the possibility that I was good enough at sneaking around to hear him rant about his plans within the confines of his own home.
The fact that he repeatedly divulged every last detail right in front of me had made me cackle on multiple occasions. Heh.
That’s what you get for underestimating a Demon Lord.

That said, knowing was only half the battle.
Not even I could single handedly wipe out all the rogues in the capital myself, at least not in a timely manner.
There were far too many of them.
Enlisting the help of the king’s men was also unfortunately not possible.
The royal guard was too busy with security and had no time to spare for my antics.
Fortunately, Knight Lady had swooped in at the last minute and saved the day.

“But I mean, honestly, it’s kinda par of course.
Being a part of the hero’s party is supposed to be something reserved for the best, ain’t it?”
“You’re implying that you’re actually one of her subordinates,” said the paladin, with a knowing grin.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I casually shrugged off the question.
“It looks like the royal guard’s run into a group of thugs just up ahead.
There’s a second group of the retard’s men sitting a bit further away.
Looks like they’re waiting around before stepping in and ‘helping out,’ probably ‘cause it’d seem suspicious if they popped out of nowhere the moment the battle started’.” I narrowed my eyes as I looked a bit further off in the distance.
“What do you say we wipe ‘em out while feigning ignorance?”
“Gladly.” She glanced over her shoulder and barked an order.
“Listen up, men! Anyone that isn’t a royal guard is hostile.
Apprehend them all, regardless of what they say!”
“Yes ma’am!”

The paladins serving under her, Nell’s coworkers and colleagues, raised their arms in an enthusiastic cheer as they picked up the pace.

***

I continued leading the group for a while.
It took a few minutes for us to reach the point of conflict.

Though the king’s men had been caught by surprise, they were able to hold their own against the thugs-cum-soldiers.
In fact, it looked like they were likely to come out on top even if we didn’t interfere, especially since other members of the royal guard were sure to reinforce them in due time.
This current status was in part a result of the men being on high alert.
The king had warned them that the castle would be attacked—albeit indirectly as to not allow any potential ne’er do wells to learn that we were onto Argus’ plans.

“Alright Knight Lady, I’m going to leave backing up the royal guard to you.”
“Roger that.
Where are you headed?”
“Oh, you know, just over to the ball.
I’mma take this opportunity to make the asshole behind all this shit aware we’re onto him, and then rub a bit of extra salt in his wounds for good measure.”

With that and a few more parting words said, I ran off.
Though I mentioned heading to the ball, I wasn’t actually heading over there immediately.
It was my second stop.
My first was one with a much higher soldier population.
I snuck behind the group waiting to make a dramatic entrance, and immediately did something that would have caused most unsuspecting onlookers to raise a brow and think me insane: I tiger kneed the air, followed it up with a command grab, and began spinning an arms around and around overhead.

If anyone with Magic Eye was to regard the situation, they would immediately come to realize that I wasn’t crazy.
Or alone.

“Why can you see me!?”
“Did you think that such a pathetic attempt at concealing yourself would allow you to escape my eyes, fool?” I laughed maniacally as I picked up the pace and started spinning my arm with even more force.

After gaining enough momentum, I released the ankle I’d been holding onto and slung its owner into the midst of the enemy’s ranks.
The speed at which he moved disturbed the formerly see-through man’s spell and rendered him visible right as he crashed into his allies. Hmm… looks like I got a third of them.
Ehhh… was gunning for half, but good enough, I guess.

Those that hadn’t fallen to the initial assault drew their weapons and encircled me.

“Are you… the hero’s subordinate?” I was addressed by a guy whose face was suspiciously hidden underneath a full helm.
His armour was a bit fancier than everyone else’s, which seemed to suggest that he was the unit’s commander.
The only other noteworthy fact I gleaned was from his voice.
He sounded like he was around the age at which most men went through their mid-life crises.

It went without saying that I knew exactly who he was, even in spite of the fact that his face had been hidden from view.
My intel told me that he was one of the men serving under the asshole that caused the incident we found ourselves in on the way to the capital.

“Oh, looks like you guys already know me,” I said.
“That’s right.
I’m one of the hero’s most faithful underlings.
And that’s why, as a dem—er, as one who believes in and enforces justice, I’m here to give a couple baddies a good old spanking.”
“If justice is your goal, then you shouldn’t be attacking us! We’re just here to help because we noticed that the castle was about to be subject to an assault!”
“That’s bullshit and you know it! You dickheads were totally just sitting around even though you clearly know that the royal guard’s already in combat!”
“That’s a misunderstanding! And completely unfounded! You have no basis for such a claim!” shouted the commander.
“If you continue to antagonize us, then we will judge you as one of the intruargh!?”

I couldn’t be fucked to listen to him any longer; I already knew that he was far from innocent, so I shut him up with a fist to the face and jumped his men.

“What!? How dare you!” shouted one.
“You underhanded coward!” screamed another.
“Thanks for the compliment.” I flashed a snarky grin as I took the man out.

The soldiers were pretty well trained.
They started fighting back as soon as I initiated, but still, they were far too weak.
Even the Wicked Forest’s goblins were more of a threat.
Though I was flinging their unconscious bodies all over the place, I wasn’t actually killing anyone given all the potential negative repercussions.
I was instead making use of the techniques I normally used to play with the girls; all the control that I’d learned from doing my best not to hurt the members of my family allowed me to output just enough strength to knock each man out without any difficulty.

Back home, I was even frequently called upon just to crack eggs. Heh.
They even call me the Demon Lord of Egg Cracking.
You wish you were this badass.

“Alright, that just about wraps that up,” I said as I glanced towards the royal guards that Knight Lady had set out to assist.
“And it looks like she’s done too.”

I still had a few things left on the agenda, so I left cleaning up after me to Carlotta, grabbed the commander by the nape of his neck and dragged him along as I headed off to the ball.