Chapter 83 – The Avengers
We went straight that way to meet the Demon King who was waiting for us in the throne room.
I don’t know if it’s because Gav’s appearance is so conspicuous, but it seems that preparations were already completed before we arrived.
The sheep-headed butler Seneca, a familiar face, greeted us, and soon after, the door to the throne room of the demon king opened to the left and right.
“Welcome. Patrasche.”
Contrary to his usual warm-hearted neighbor-like appearance, Demon King-nim, who looked great today, was sitting on the throne and waiting for us.
Wondering why, I looked around, and to the left and right of the Demon King, the Demon King’s Army and the Four Heavenly Kings were all lined up.
All the leaders of the Demon King’s army gathered in one place.
‘They’re all people I know.’
Commander-in-Chief Mephisto.
The White Beast General, Walter Leonhart.
Armored General Nick Iron.
The General of Magic, Dorothea Gale.
Seeing it this way, it is quite spectacular.
In general, the Four Heavenly Kings were busy working in their respective districts, so they rarely gathered together like this.
Originally, Nick Iron should have been in the demon dragon village, but it seems he was summoned like us.
Dorothea, whom I hadn’t seen in a long time, twitched her lips when our eyes met mine, but she remained calm, perhaps because she was in front of the Demon Lord.
Anyway, after the preliminary search, I went inside and got down on one knee and bowed my head.
“Shin Patrasche, Ozma-sama’s escort mission has been completed and has returned safely.”
Then a solemn voice came from above his head.
“Raise your head.”
As I raised my head as ordered, the eyes of the Four Heavenly Kings lined up from left to right fell on me.
However, if attention is burdensome here, it is third-rate.
I decided to act like a first-class mage with an iron plate on my face.
When Maou-nim met my gaze, he took it all in stride and brought it to the point.
“It’s nothing else, Patrasche. The reason why I called you urgently was because the hero who was imprisoned in the demon castle was killed. Because of that, the future situation became unclear, so I called to discuss how to respond in the future.”
I calmly listened to the story and asked the most curious questions.
“Who killed the warrior?”
In a way, that was the most important part.
The fact that the hero captured by my betrayal was still alive without being executed was information that only a few people knew even within the Demon King’s army.
If the information leaked out to the outside through some kind of route, that meant that there was a traitor in the Demon King’s army, so I couldn’t be relieved.
Fortunately, however, these concerns were only concerns.
“According to the first guard who discovered the scene, it seems that the prisoner who was confined on the same floor broke out of the cage and killed the hero before committing suicide. Was.”
“…The prisoner killed the hero?”
As far as I remember, only a few people were locked up on the third floor of the dungeon except for the party of warriors.
Also, I heard that mana cannot be used inside the iron cage, but if that is the case, it would be a sound that he came out of the iron cage with only pure muscle strength.
It’s not even a gorilla, is that possible?
“I think I should check the site once.”
Then, the Demon King nodded his head earnestly.
“I’ll tell Vanessa. See you after the meeting.”
“Thank you for your consideration.”
After the conversation between me and the Demon King ended to some extent, Balter, who was watching from the side, spoke up.
“Then, the next agenda item, what do you think should be done in the future?”
I shifted my gaze to Walter.
“What are you talking about in the future?”
“I heard from the Demon King that you were the one who established the hypothesis that the next hero wouldn’t appear unless the hero dies.
“If that’s the case…”
I was at a loss for words.
It wasn’t really to annoy them, it was actually because I hadn’t thought about the B plan.
However, it was not easy to say such a thing in a situation where all the leaders of the Demon King’s army were gathered, so I quickly shook my head.
The death of a hero, the birth of a new hero.
Current situation.
The fall of the Hamburg Fortress, the Demon King’s army.
Several keywords run through my head.
What the Demon King and the Four Heavenly Kings are currently worried about is the birth of a new hero.
And the hero who appeared this time must be strong enough to be incomparable to the previous one.
It was because the hero of the previous generation had failed to subdue the demon lord.
If so, King Oscar of the kingdom will immediately summon a new hero and form a party of warriors to assassinate the demon king.
It would be best if we could conquer the human kingdom before that happens, but it’s winter now.
The cold weather kept the army from moving until at least in the spring.
A perfect situation for a new hero to be born.
After simulating numerous possibilities with parallel thinking, which I only use when using the 6th hierarchy, I came up with an amazing method.
“Why don’t we send an assassin too?”
Then, after hearing my words, Walter’s expression turned to disappointment.
“The method of killing a hero before he grows up is a method that the previous generations of demon kings have tried a lot. But that act rather accelerated the growth of the surviving warrior. Rather, it is closer to self-infestation.”
It is a common cliche that the hero of the day decides to subdue the demon king because the villagers are massacred or someone important to him dies.
But that wasn’t what I was suggesting.
“No, I did not propose to assassinate the hero.”
“Hmm? So what?”
“Who will choose the warriors?”
“Are you saying you want to talk twenty heads with me? Isn’t that the goddess of courage?”
“What about supporting it, and recruiting and sending a party?”
“That’s the Kingdom of Oz… Ah.”
Only then did Walter seem to realize what I was trying to say.
“Are you trying to assassinate the king, not the hero?”
“That’s it.”
I nodded and outlined the plan I had in mind.
“How long are you going to sit still and be assassinated? We also send a proper assassin once.”
“…Us?”
Dorothea muttered as if it were absurd, but I pretended not to know and continued my explanation.
“Until now, humans must have thought that only they could send a hero. We are digging into that ‘common sense’.”
Then Walter, still skeptical, shook his head and rejected my idea.
“But this isn’t the first time I’ve had the idea of sending an assassin to a human capital. And it’s failed frequently throughout our long history.”
When I heard that, I argued fervently.
“What is the cause of the failure? After all, isn’t it just because we sent such weak people? .”
Nick Irons, who had been quietly listening to the conversation, intervened.
“So you mean to send assassins in small numbers?”
“That’s it.”
As I patted my knee, he muttered incomprehensibly.
“Then what’s different from the warrior party?”
“Does it need to be different? Just kill well.”
Two of the four heavenly kings, Walter and Nick, seemed to be negative, but unexpectedly, the demon king seemed to feel that my opinion was plausible.
He asked, stroking his long beard.
“But on the human side, when a king dies, the next king will take the throne. Can he just cause such great chaos?”
“To the demon tribe, the king is just an administrator chosen by the goddess of power, but the human king has a more complicated dynamic than that. Not to mention King Oscar, the current king of the Kingdom of Oz, whose reign period exceeds 30 years. It’s an old raccoon. If he suddenly dies, sitting at the top of the nobles and ruling the kingdom, the kingdom will surely fall into great chaos, no matter how many successors there are.”
I knew very well that the bond formed by power was shallow, having been around as the face madam of the Mage Tower on behalf of Master.
And the corrupt nobility of the current Kingdom of Oz will move me in the direction I want.
Because the strong royal power system causes a backlash from the people who are oppressed by it.
“If the king dies, there will definitely be great chaos.
“Who is the new hero?”
“What do you know? The country will be ruined first before they grow up anyway.”
Instead of trampling on the sprouts before they grow, it turns the whole soil itself upside down.
Demon King, who nodded his head, asked the Four Heavenly Kings lined up on either side to see if he liked my agenda.
“I think this plan is quite good. What do you guys think?”
Then, almost simultaneously, the Four Heavenly Kings got down on one knee and answered the Demon King.
“Please do according to the will of the Demon King.”
“I see.”
Maou-nim said that and stared at me with dark eyes that felt deep dizziness.
“I’ll support you this time, so you can do whatever you want.”
“I will not disappoint you.”
I said so and bowed deeply.
