“Your Highness, this abs’lutely will not do!”

For some reason, Charlotte, who I viewed as my most devoted, most loyal follower, was yelling at me, a mix of anger and desperation in her voice.

Well, no, the phrasing ‘for some reason’ would imply I was unaware of the reason for her increase in volume. I knew perfectly well why she was so mad at me—and honestly, it was very reasonable.

“T’ call someone thy friend, yet have no contact with the oth’r party f’r years… Art thou socially inept?!”

“No, I am not sure anyone would willingly go to visit her…”

“Didst thou say something?”

“Nothing.”

With a shake of my head, I denied insulting the cat-eared idiot.

The scene had changed from my private office to the Demon Generals’ meeting room, dark as always—I could not see a single wall from where I sat. As expected if I enacted such a scene change, I had also called the other four Demon Generals there.

Of course, as my bodyguard, Nexu was also present—his sister was standing by elsewhere in my private quarters. Evyna seemed to have decided sticking around me in these kinds of situations was helpful in some capacity, Saniel had declared she wanted to witness ‘the villains’ summit’, and Nyx seemed to have had the idea that we would be interesting to watch.

To describe the room as ‘crowded’ would not do it justice.

I cleared my throat.

“In any case. I am going to go visit her now, so there is no problem, no?”

“Do not write it off as ‘no probl’m’, Your Highness! ‘Tis a matt’r conc’rning thy treasured companions!”

“... Right. In any case, I have taken the point, so I would like it if you left it at that.”

“Well, if thou sayeth so…”

Once more, I cleared my throat.

“In that case, I would like to start the meeting now. Lilith, put the book away.”

“ ‘Kaaaay~”

“Our next destination… That is, the next official operation has been decided.”

At these words, Lilith truly did put her book away, and Tempest, too, perked up in interest.

“Let me start this off by saying that last time was a great success. We have successfully formed the Alliance of the Divine Throne and acquired the cooperation of the elves and the drakonids, and not only that, but we have gained their holy treasures, too.”

With a dramatic flair, I produced a piece of wood from my [Storage]—indeed, I was carrying both the branch of the world tree and the Drakonian Fire with me. There was no safer place in the world for them.

Tempest’s eyes locked onto the branch, fascinated by its magic power, and Davna, too, followed its motions with her gaze, though for an entirely different reason.

“That leaves us, in essence, with two courses of action. Two targets, so to speak. And at the prompting of my… friend, I have decided which of those to handle first. We will be heading south and seizing control of the dwarven kingdom.”

“ ‘Seizing control’… Arthur, you’re even more villainous than I thought!”

“A-are you sure that’s, uhm, okay, mister Astaroth?”

Both of the former humans seemed to have decided, for some reason, that their interjections were absolutely vital to the matter at hand.

“Peanut gallery, no comments, please,” I said, glancing in their direction.

Although the ones in the room who had never been human to begin with did not appear to comprehend the phrase itself, the meaning must have carried through, since they, too, turned their gazes to Saniel and Evyna.

“Ah— Sorry…”

“S-sorry, mister Astaroth!”

I shook my head.

“Now, as for the matter of the dwarves, there are, in essence, three things to note. First of all, Charlotte will not be participating in this operation.”

Charlotte, who of course already knew this, nodded in agreement, though the rest collectively tilted their heads.

“She has a different mission,” I elaborated. “That is, she will be heading into the Holy Astal Kingdom to set up a… base of operations, of sorts. Well, it could also be called a cult.”

“A cult… How villainous…”

“Saniel, what did I say about comments?”

“S-sorry…”

“On that topic, Charlotte… A slight change of plans. Once you finish your mission, do not return to the castle. Contact me for further instructions. Depending on the situation at the time, your next destination may vary. Whatever you do, do not return to the castle unless I tell you to.”

“Und’rstood, Your Highness.”

“As for the second point. Along the way, we will be stopping in to pick someone up. That ‘friend’ I mentioned earlier has expressed she wants to watch, and in exchange, she will guide us. Be sure to get along with her.”

“Get along~? Navillus will try best!”

“And then finally. The most important announcement of this entire meeting. It pertains particularly to you, Davna, so pay attention.”

Though she had been distractedly gazing out the window, she turned her full attention to me.

“Our trip to the goblin kingdom was an expedition, and thus we only took an expeditionary force. On the other hand, our trip north was a state visit. But this time…”

As might be expected from me with this kind of turn of phrase, I turned up the corners of my lips into a sneer.

“This is a full-scale military operation, with everything that involves. You are to take all three of your lieutenant generals, and as many forces as you please. Do not hold back. We will get our hands on the dwarves, and on the Spirit Steel, and the responsibility to ensure that happens lies largely with you.”

She presented me with a few moments of stunned silence…

And then a splendid, elated grin as she jumped to her feet.

“Gotcha. I’ll make sure they understand our power!”

“I am counting on you, Davna.”

Of course, though she may have been like a daughter to me, there was no way I would dump the role of Marshal of Destruction onto someone without a good reason. The fact of the matter was that, as a Red Dragon, her senses for battle, strategy and tactics were probably better than mine would ever be, even though she was yet to reach eight years of age and even if that young age made her imperfect.

“Um, m-mister Astaroth?”

Apparently having learned her lesson about unprompted comments, Evyna raised her hand and timidly called out to me.

“Speak.”

“Um, I have two questions…”

“I said speak. One or two, it is no matter to me.”

“R-right. Then, uh, first… Are we coming, too?”

She gestured to herself and Saniel.

“Of course. You are as much a part of my army as anyone else. Well, leaving the castle entirely undefended would be unwise, so Davna will likely leave a force behind, but… No, let me add a stipulation, Davna.”

“Sure?”

“Do not leave a single corpse-type undead in the castle.”

“Gotcha!”

A cheerful, unquestioning nod.

Which was worrying in and of itself… Perhaps I would have to teach her to doubt people, or at least ask questions, in the future.

“Then, Evyna. Your second question.”

“Ah, y-yes. Um…” She nodded, and then gingerly pointed to my cheek. “Th-that’s, um, Lady Gnome’s holy symbol, right? If you showed them that, wouldn’t the dwarves, uh, j-just…”

She trailed off, averting her eyes.

“Well, that train of thought is not necessarily incorrect, but… Do they still teach Heroes about the goddess-touched races?”

“Uh, n-not really… All I really know about dwarves is that they have metal hair, that they’re short and that they’re good at earth-attribute magic…”

“Then I shall tell you. Dwarves are a notoriously proud and stubborn folk. Something like Gnome’s holy symbol would not suffice to convince them to work with me, a monster, the symbol of their persecution—if anything, it would have the opposite effect and make them suspicious of me, so I will be hiding my face, at least to start with.”

Of course, that would make me suspicious in a different way, but that could not be helped.

“P-persecution?”

“What, they did not even teach you that? You have the basis to figure it out. Mull it over a little. This is not exactly an important conversation, so we can pick it up again later.”

“Right…”

“Right, then.”

I cleared my throat once more and rose from my chair.

“So, in conclusion. Charlotte, gather whoever you believe you may need and head out. Davna, form a unit from the remaining forces which, at the very least, includes every remaining corpse-type undead. We must—nay, we will take the dwarves, and in a similar vein, starting potential in the Holy Astal Kingdom, too, is crucial. I am counting on you.”

I turned on my heel and used one of the new tricks I had recently mastered—that is, stepping into the shadows and, with practised timing, borrowing and activating Asami’s [Self-Teleport].

Thus, to outside eyes, I simply walked into the darkness and melted away into it, taking Nexu with me.

***

“I didn’t know Arthur could do that… He really is amazing!”

With a bright smile on her face, the saint-turned-undead praised her new master. Despite the fact that he’d been exceedingly rough with her every single time she’d needed purification, that, if anything, seemed only to grow her respect for him.

And yet—

“Know thy place, thee knave!”

For some reason, the vampire who was supposed to be the most loyal to that same master was getting mad at her.

“Wh- have I done something wrong, Miss Charlotte?!”

Her enthusiasm faded away as quickly as it had appeared to begin with, soon replaced by panic and apologies.

“ ‘Done something wrong’? Thou art asking if thou hath ‘done something wrong’? I tol’rate thy b’haviour in front of His Highness, for I do not wish t’ show him my bad side, but thou art ver’ly… What ist thy probl’m?! ‘Arthur’?! Thou calls High Highness Arthur w’thout hes’tation! Not t’ mention the hon’rific, why doth thou insist on using his form’r name?!”

Charlotte’s tirade went on and on, and Saniel’s face paled further with every word. In fact, the two of them seemed like they’d be going for so long that the rest of the people in the room just decided to ignore them.

“The dwarven kingdom, is it?” Tempest asked, mostly to herself, and tilted her head. “I have heard that they are technologically rather advanced… Perhaps we could acquire a more efficient way to produce magic stones? Or maybe we could even get them to produce them for us…”

She quickly got lost inside her thoughts about what she could do with such a treasure trove—after all, it only took one magic stone to produce a Living Armour, so no matter how fast the smiths worked, there would probably be a surplus. Perhaps she could experiment with new artifacts, or different designs for Living Armours, or even new ways to produce artificial souls…

Yeah, she was long gone.

Davna, for her part, fell into thought about who she should take with, and after seeking everyone else’s permission, quickly set to using the table to set up a map and miniatures to help along her planning.

Lilith dropped her attention back to her book, Evyna disappeared down her own mind to try and figure out what her lord had meant about the dwarves and monsters, Navillus slipped into thoughts about food…

Nyx, then, soon decided this wasn’t as interesting as she’d hoped and disappeared into the castle’s halls once more.

***

“Everyone, attention! A message from His Highness!”

At Davna’s words, I stepped forward. She stepped aside and allowed me to take centre stage.

Quite literally—we were, in fact, stood on a stage, in front of an enormous amount of monsters in surprisingly orderly rows.

Yes, we were facing the entire army Davna had put together for this operation.

“Everyone. From years of inactivity to a sudden, full-army sortie… If I were some middle-level commander, or I were in a self-deprecating mood, surely I would say some choice words about the unreasonableness of the brass.”

The ‘soldiers’ could not contain their laughter, even though my line was not all that funny—perhaps military humour was not yet popularised in this world.

“But remember. This is your job. Unreasonable or not, fulfilling orders is what you signed up for when you enrolled in the Academy.”

In the front of one of the lines stood Demi-Dragon Kesthis, his eyes gleaming with pride at my words.

“Surely you pride yourself in your abilities. Your skills, your intellect, your strength.”

War Ogre Grink, in the front of another line, could not resist the temptation to flex. Kesthis swiftly smacked him upside the head, and the two returned to posture.

“So, that pride of yours…”

I noticed the tip of Doom Lamia Selaia’s tail twitch even as she pretended to look away disinterestedly.

“Prove to me that it is not empty.”

I raised my hand in front of me, as though making to grab some fleeting hope, floating right in front of my face.

“Prove to me that you are what you aspire to be—that you can do your job right. Prove to me that you are not so pathetic as to make claims you cannot keep.”

I clenched my hand into a fist and, with a grand sweeping gesture, moved it to the side.

“We shall prove our absolute superiority to those arrogant, puny little dwarves! Make them submit to us! We may have some sort of non-aggression treaty, but the deadline for that is over, and to hell with any extensions! Trample them underfoot!”

The soldiers were practically hanging to my lips for my every word even while they maintained posture.

“The Goddess is on our side! Do not falter, do not fail! And most of all—Do not disappoint us!”

“Sir, yes, sir!” they replied, their voices booming across the plaza as they collectively shot into a salute.