Chapter 131

Chapter 131: 131

Lapis’ expression became cold.\n

“Sir Dantalian.”

“Yes, I know what you want to say. I know. You want to tell me that I shouldn’t receive a loan thoughtlessly, right?”

I waved my hand.

There was a time that I asked Lapis for a loan one year ago. I was trying to prepare as much money as possible in order to buy black herbs. Lapis firmly refused back then as well. She advised me to slowly make money over hundreds of years.

Despite being a merchant, she strangely disliked loans. Even though you have no other choice but to be in debt in order to make a lot of money. No, maybe she’s cautious of loans because she’s a merchant. That may be the case.

“That is correct. Of course, Sir Dantalian’s credibility has increased greatly. The sole fact that you are Her Highness Barbatos’ close aide is enough to make any firm want to loan you money. Nevertheless, going in debt without any sort of plan is a straight path to ruin.”

“You are right; however, if there is a will, there is a way. Fufu. Well, just you wait. In any case, you don’t have to worry too much about the budget.”

“Haah.”

Lapis gave me a doubtful look, but she didn’t push the issue regarding money any more than this. I had assured her that there was a way. She most likely intended to put her trust in me for now. Lapis may nag at me a lot, but she was a nagging person who trusted me.

Laura spoke.

“Lord. I understand the layout which you wish to construct. From this young lady’s understanding, Your Lordship has not placed your focal point on simply defeating adventurers. You said that you are going to win through numbers, but you intend to also bring in entire tribes of monsters and create homes for them. At that point, instead of a Demon Lord Castle, it would be better to refer to this as a city instead.”

As expected of Laura. She may not be gifted in politics, but her intuition is good.

“Therefore……Your Lordship is not planning to simply turn your Demon Lord Castle into a fortress. You intend to create a city and rule over it. Is this young lady understanding this properly?”

“Excellent. You are right. I am not planning to simply take in a few monsters as my subordinates.”

A voluntary ecosystem.

This was what I wanted.

For example, let’s say a bunch of monsters invaded a human village and the village didn’t have a village chief or a prominent figure who could act as a leading figure. Would the humans not try to fight back because of this?

No. For the sake of protecting their families, their neighbors, and their livelihoods……they would voluntarily fight back without being ordered to do so. This isn’t because they have some lofty morals. It’s because their lives would also be ruined if they allow their village to be destroyed. Fighting to protect their village is an extension of fighting to protect their lives.

Someone ran away even though their village is on the verge of being destroyed? This means that they’re confident enough in themselves to live without their village. They can distinguish between the necessity of a village and their lives.

When I invaded the margrave’s territory as a member of the Crescent Alliance’s 6th legion, the people easily surrendered once their rights to live were guaranteed. This was because they believed it didn’t matter to them whether Rosenberg or Barbatos took the seat of margrave.\n

On the other hand, Margrave Rosenberg resisted until the very end. He wanted to defeat the Crescent Alliance and take back his land. Why? It was because Rosenberg believed that he couldn’t split his life away from the title of margrave…….

The efficiency of an ecosystem within a society is determined by whether the members of the society act voluntarily or not. Rosenberg may have been an excellent soldier, but he was not an excellent lord. A majority of the rulers in this era are probably like him.

I want the monsters to protect the dungeon voluntarily.

I deliberately won’t order them to defend the dungeon. I’ll leave them alone so they can run away whenever they want. I want the monsters to bare their fangs and claws at the adventurers despite all of this.

It’d make things convenient for me as well.

How many more years will I live for? Different from humans, Demon Lords don’t have a lifespan. Be it a hundred or a thousand years, we can live for as long as our luck allows. A countless number of adventurers will undoubtedly invade during this long period of time. Do you expect me to contemplate how to deal with adventurers every time they invade? I’d rather not deal with such hard labor.

I’ll let the monsters take care of it on their own. If a talented individual appears among them, then I’ll let them move further down. I’ll considerately allow them to live in areas with denser mana. If, in the rare chance, a type of crime is committed, then I will try them as an impartial judge. Dealing with a reward and punishment system is already a lot of work. Telling me to also rule over a bunch of monsters while doing all this would be insane.

Laura made a correct assumption. I’m not trying to only create a Demon Lord Castle. I want to create a city for monsters, a city for my comfort.

And, in truth, this was going to happen.

* * *

The next day, a guest arrived.

It was Rank 12 Demon Lord Sitri. She was invited by Lapis who had moved after receiving secret orders from me. Teleportation scrolls were used, so it didn’t take much time for them to come and go.

“Heh, so this is your castle?”

Sitri looked around my room. Her eyes sparkled at first, but that shine quickly faded. My Demon Lord room went beyond being frugal and simply looked shabby. This was incredibly lacking for Sitri’s aesthetic sense since she most likely has a glorious castle.

I smiled awkwardly.

“It is shabby, right?”

“Yeah. I thought you would be living like a young noble, but this is surprising.”

“It would most likely be difficult to find another Demon Lord like me whom the term young noble fits the least.”

I was instead confident in going well with the term bum.

Sitri uttered an ‘Is that so?’ as she tilted her head.

“In any case, why did you call me? Sorry, but we’re still in the middle of a war. I did come because you’re the one who called for me, but I can’t stay for more than an hour.” \nShe looked genuinely apologetic.

“If you called me because you wanted to have sex, then I recommend rescheduling. We need at least 4 hours if you want to experience the most…….”

“That absolutely is not the reason! Do you think I am some sort of stallion who invites people to have sex even though they are busy fighting a war!?”

“Eh? That isn’t why you called me?”

Sitri opened her eyes wide in surprise.

“I was sure that you were going to make that kind of request since you called me all of a sudden.”

“I am very curious to know what sort of image Miss Sitri has of me in your mind.”

The corners of my mouth twitched.

“Uh, but……I heard rumors that you’re quite good at it.”

“Rumors? Ruuuumors? There are rumors about me being good at sex?”

“Yeah. Barbatos would always go around bragging to the other female Demon Lords.”

This is news to me.

“He makes you climax a hundred times in a day, he knows all sorts of positions so it’s fun to let him have his way, and he learns really fast so it’s fun to teach him new things. The way she bragged about her lover did seem foolish, though.”

Barbatoooos!

For some reason, I could clearly imagine Barbatos sharing risque stories with the other female Demon Lords while smiling like a creepy old man. She probably used obscene hand gestures while she talked about how satisfying the sex she had the other day was. That lewd loli!

“Ah, I also heard that you recently opened your eyes to BDSM.”

All right. I made up my mind now. I’ll definitely kill that loli one day.

I’ll tie her up and tickle her to death. I’ll tickle her until beads of sweat form on those pale armpits of hers.

However, Sitri’s bombshells didn’t end there.

“I was really surprised. Who knew that Barbatos would take the masochist role. I was certain that she would always take the sadistic role all her life. Even Barbatos herself seemed surprised! What did she say again? Being dominated by a trashy bastard made it seem like she was lower than trash, so the pleasure was immense.”

\nThere was no way to know what was the truth. However, there was one thing that was certain and it was the fact that the woman sitting in front of me had managed to go against all odds to maintain her position today. Similar to how there was no reason to know what method was used to create a painting when observing a masterpiece, being awed by Sitri’s behavior didn’t mean that I had to know what sort of life she had lived.

“Please loan me 1,000,000 gold.”

“Sure. Mm. But there’s a bit of a problem. My money is in my Demon Lord Castle, so I can’t give it to you right away.”

She looked sullen.

“Sorry, but can I give you the money after the war is over?”

I smiled bitterly. This is natural.

“It seems you have misunderstood. I am not asking you to give me money. I am asking you to loan me money.”

“……Huh?”

“I wish for you to loan me 1,000,000 gold. I will pay you back one day.”

Sitri furrowed her brows.

“But I can just give it to you?”

“I appreciate the thought; however, if you do that then I could not say that I am standing on an equal position with you, Miss Sitri. I do not wish to have such a relationship.”

I wanted to obtain Sitri’s trust. I didn’t want a relationship where we simply used each other. I wanted us to become genuine comrades. This is an utterly perilous world. I would feel reassured if a pure-hearted Demon Lord like Sitri were on my side.

I grabbed Sitri’s right hand with both of my hands.

“E-Eeh?”

“Miss Sitri. I wish to be with you forever.”

For some reason, her cheeks became red.

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. This came out faster than I expected. Honestly, you wouldn’t expect Sitri to be like this after everything we saw in the LN. It’s a surprising change. It sort of makes me more curious about what the author intended to do with Sitri in the LN.

Well, in any case, I’ll see you guys in the next chapter.