Dungeon Defense (WN)

the archdukes would act because I was similar to them.
This was as far as my schemes went.

The title of hero fitted people like Imperial Princess Elizabeth.
She was both competent and broad-minded.
She was quite literally a shining talent. 

I’m jealous, but I won’t lose.
There are other things that those who doubt everything can do.
Even the lowliest of slaves can stab a dagger into an emperor’s heart.

“Sir Dantalian, there is something that I wish to ask.”

“Ask me anything.
I will tell you anything except for the color of my underwear.”

“……I already know that Sir Dantalian never wears any underwear.”

What?

“H-How did you know that?”

“Who do you think has been preparing your clothes up to this point? The clothes you have on right now; in other words, your mantle, your pants, and your vest, those were all prepared by me.
Underwear was the one and only thing that you did not ask for.”

Lapis glanced at me with genuinely scornful eyes.

“Naturally, I am aware that Demon Lords innately have a low metabolism.
There are many days where you do not shed a single drop of sweat.
Nonetheless, not ordering even a single article of underwear is…….”

“I am sorry.
Please ask me the question.”

I lowered my head.
I should’ve just taken the question instead of trying to throw out a joke.
I only ended up taking a huge hit instead.
The refutation that I didn’t allow the Kakola Archduke to even make was done by Lapis almost as naturally as she breathed.
Is she not terrifying?

“You have currently met 17 archdukes.”

“Mhm.”

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“However, you only asked for aid from 6 of them.
I do not understand this.
Would it not have been better to receive aid from all 17 archdukes?”

“No.”

I gave an immediate response.

“Lapis, you are saying that it would be better to have received a million or two million gold from all 17 archdukes respectively, correct?”

“Yes.
You are only receiving aid from 6 of them, and yet you have already been promised ten million gold.
Who knows how much more you would have gotten if you asked for aid from all 17 of those archdukes…….”

“Haha.”

I inadvertently let out a laugh.

“It was for the sake of raising awareness.”

“Awareness……?”

“That is right.
The archdukes are not idiots.
They are sending between a million and two million gold.
There is no way that they would not do any sort of research when they have to send such a large sum of money.”

The archdukes will utilize their information networks for the sake of confirming whether what I told them was true or not.
They will first try to reach out to the other archdukes around them.

They will then realize that there were those who had promised to send Dantalian money―and there were those who weren’t even told to offer any money.

“Do you understand what this means?”

“I apologize.”

Oh dear, it seems Lapis isn’t very knowledgeable when it comes to this.
She is extremely talented when it comes to financial matters, but she’s weak when it comes to genuine games of authority.
Should I give her a hint?

“Think about what the archdukes would think their support would mean here.
Those guys will definitely start to believe that the people who have invested a large sum of money will have their ‘safety’ guaranteed.”

“……!”

Lapis’ eyes widened.
It seems she figured it out.

“To make them think that you had cherry-picked them……?”

I nodded.

“The high-ranking Demon Lords did not ask for the loyalty of every archduke.
They requested for the fidelity of only a small minority of archdukes.
If this is the case, what will happen to the archdukes that weren’t asked to offer their support? Why did they only receive money from certain archdukes and not even mention it at all to the other archdukes……?”

A smile danced on my lips.

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“Can you imagine what the archdukes who had promised to send money will think?”

“You are setting an example……is it?”

Lapis barely managed to utter those words.
Bingo.

“The Demon Lords have not fully relinquished the idea of conquering the demon world.
They simply separated the loyal subjects from the disloyal ones.
Dantalian was not a tax collector who was dispatched to gather money.
He was actually an envoy whose goal was to select which archdukes to spare and which archdukes to kill…….
This is what the archdukes will think.”

They will then shudder in terror. 

They will realize that they had unwittingly managed to escape from being purged.

“The backs of their necks will probably go cold once they realize this.”

I chuckled.
It was impossible to hold back a laugh after picturing their reactions.

“That is why I put in a bit of effort.
I deliberately excluded the archdukes who were openly hostile towards Demon Lords.
I simply threatened them a bit and ended the conversation after some small talk.
I only received money from those who were docile towards Demon Lords.”

“Was this perhaps why you hired spies to gather information throughout the demon world for the past month?”

“It was for the sake of looking into the usual behavior of those archdukes.”

As a result, I found out that only 9 archdukes were relatively respectful to Demon Lords.
The rest of them were all uncooperative.
No, to be more exact, they were uncooperative with the Crescent Alliance.

Some of them were even offering their financial aid to low-ranking Demon Lords.
There was a reason why the Demon Lords of the Mountain Faction seemed high-spirited.
They were so brazen that it almost made me speechless.

“Well, that was not my only goal.
The other archdukes will soon―.”

It was at that moment.
The sound of a large explosion boomed in front of our carriage.
The tremor shook the carriage before it immediately lost its balance and tipped over.
Lapis quickly got up and covered me.

“Sir Dantalian, please lower your head.”

I didn’t have the opportunity to even say something in response.
Lapis held my head as close to her chest as possible before deliberately getting on the floor of the carriage.
Shortly after, another explosion rang out.
It happened right next to our carriage this time.

I instinctively knew what was happening while I was being held by Lapis.

‘It’s a terrorist attack!’

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter.
Uh, I’ve been releasing pretty fast and regularly lately, so I don’t have much to say.
I guess I’m sort of looking for something to do in my free time.
I’ve gotten to the point that I’ve started to play League of Legends again.
This is terrible.
Maybe I’ll resub to FFXIV.
I don’t know.
This just feels like a series of short, random thoughts. 

I’ll stop here before I go insane.
I’ll see you guys in the next chapter!