Appointment Of The Four Heavenly Kings

Now that we knew what had to be done, what we needed next was manpower.

What we knew at this stage was that Mureen, who had become my master through our contract, had many enemies.

Demonkind needed to be reunited in order to resist humanity, but apparently Mureen’s brother had failed to accomplish that.

And with Mureen still so young, there would surely be those who cared nothing for the Demon King’s bloodline and instead sought to rule demonkind themselves.

Mureen’s brother might even come to regard her as an enemy if he saw people abandoning him and flocking to his younger sister instead.

It was a grim possibility, but it was hardly unusual for a ruler’s greatest enemy to be their own blood relative.

Naturally, we couldn’t forget about the humans either.

It was fortunate that the Hero wounded by the previous Demon King could no longer move properly, but from what I’d heard about the rulers of the human nations, there was every possibility they might kill the current Hero and transfer the power to a new one.

Of course, since he was the great champion who had defeated the Demon King, they probably wouldn’t do so lightly, but… if, for instance, Mureen’s brother became a major threat to humanity, I doubted they would hesitate then.

And if the next Hero proved useless, they could simply move on to another. There was no reason they wouldn’t repeat what they had done before.

The power granted to the human races seemed to come not from the god spoken of by the angels, but from a divine being native to this world, and it certainly had bestowed one troublesome ability upon them.

After burying Zahak’s remains and making a grave for him, I picked up Mureen, who looked as though she wanted to ask what we would do next, and set her on my shoulders.

I wasn’t particularly large myself, but Mureen was only about the size of a five- or six-year-old human child, so I could manage to carry her that way.

Incidentally, I’d been told that demonfolk took ten times as long to mature, which meant she was probably actually around fifty or sixty years old.

In other words, it would take another hundred to a hundred and fifty years before she matured enough to stand on her own two feet and live independently.

Even in that sense, this contract was truly a massive undertaking.

As for a base, we could simply continue using the mansion Zahak had left behind.

If safety were our only concern, we should abandon this place and build a new base somewhere absolutely no one knew about, but since Mureen might eventually stand as Demon King, disappearing completely from the world wouldn’t be wise.

Perhaps not now, but in the future there would undoubtedly be members of demonkind who wished to rally under her banner, and we needed to make sure such people knew she still existed.

For that reason, we wouldn’t leave this place, but that only made strong security all the more necessary.

We also needed intelligence gathering, plans for the future, and an education that would give Mureen a broad perspective, which basically meant there was no alternative but to summon every one of my subordinates.

Mureen clutched my head nervously from her elevated perch, so I patted her knee and pointed toward the ground.

“Come forth. Bella, Pisca, Anis, Villa.”

Four magic circles appeared on the ground, and Bella, Pisca, Anis, and Villa emerged from them.

Beside my ear, Mureen let out a tiny cry of delight.

I felt a little smug about that, though I kept it off my face.

Bella would normally have leapt at me the instant she appeared, but since I was carrying an unfamiliar demonfolk girl, Mureen, she restrained herself, and all three of her heads barked at once.

The other three dropped to one knee and bowed their heads toward me.

“By contract, I am to protect Mureen, guide her, raise her, and, if she desires it, make her Demon King. But she has many enemies, and the situation is difficult. That’s why I need everyone’s strength. I want you to help me.”

Bella was by far the most dependable when it came to protection, while Pisca’s and Anis’s abilities were indispensable for gathering information and replenishing supplies.

I could teach Mureen sorcery myself, but when it came to knowledge that would give her a broader perspective beyond that, Villa would undoubtedly be the better teacher.

And above all, raising Mureen’s heart and character as a child would require as much interaction with others as possible.

Spending time with Bella, who was a beast, and Pisca, who had once been a fairy, would help satisfy the more childlike side of her, while Anis had experience raising a granddaughter of her own.

As for Villa, she possessed the life experience of someone who had witnessed the collapse of an entire world.

“I am Mureen. I trust you will all serve me well.”

Mureen addressed the devils who had appeared all at once without showing the slightest sign of fear.

As expected of the Demon King’s daughter—or perhaps I should say, the new Demon King—Mureen possessed remarkable courage.

Even so, she had parted with Zahak, whom she called Grandfather, and met all of us, with whom she would now be living, so one enormous event after another had struck her today.

The moment her emotional tension broke, all that exhaustion and feeling would probably come rushing out at once.

We would stay with her until she became tired enough to fall asleep, and only afterward would we share information.

Come to think of it, it was embarrassingly foolish of me, but I’d completely overlooked the obvious fact that Zahak’s mansion had several servants living in it.

Apparently, Zahak had instructed them not to leave their rooms today.

They were wary of us at first, but once Mureen introduced us, they at least accepted our presence for the time being.

Well, it was only natural that their suspicion wouldn’t vanish immediately, so we could simply get to know one another little by little.

There was nothing unpleasant in the way they looked at us either, so it didn’t seem like there would be any major problem.

After Mureen finally fell asleep, the rest of us gathered to review the situation.

I especially wanted Anis, who would be central to our intelligence gathering, and Villa, who served as our strategist, to have an accurate grasp of everything.

“So that’s where things stand. The situation is pretty bad right now. And this time, time isn’t on our side either.”

In most of my previous summons, I’d been able to remain hidden while gradually taking measures to improve the situation, but this time we needed to act aggressively from the very beginning.

Because if we did nothing and simply let time pass, multiple factions would emerge seeking the throne of Demon King, and fighting would break out among demonkind.

Past wars had already proven that if demonkind remained divided, humanity would likely win even without the Hero being able to fight.

Mureen surviving and growing up safely wouldn’t mean much if the rest of demonkind had gone extinct by then.

“So as Mureen’s guardians, we need to beat down every powerful demon who looks likely to pursue the Demon King’s throne—without killing them—make them our subordinates, and rebuild the Demon King’s Army as quickly as possible.”

Then, once Mureen had grown, if she still wanted to become Demon King, we would place her on the throne. If she didn’t, we would need to find someone else with potential, educate them, and make that person Demon King instead.

Bella could smash warrior-type demons such as Cyclopes and Ogres, while I could smash magically gifted demons such as demonfolk.

Apparently demonkind placed great importance on strength, so combined with our position as guardians of the previous Demon King’s daughter, they would probably submit to us.

The problem was Mureen’s brother, who could directly challenge the legitimacy of that claim, but we could deal with him later.

Perhaps we could settle things through discussion, or perhaps we’d have to beat each other senseless.

It depended entirely on how he reacted.

“Once we’ve brought everyone under control, the four of us should call ourselves the Four Heavenly Kings. I’ll command the sorcerer types, and Bella will command the warrior types. Anis can organize the mobile and transport units, while Pisca will handle covert operations. Those four will be the Four Heavenly Kings. Villa will serve as the Demon King’s deputy and tutor.”

Our goal was to establish the minimum necessary structure as quickly as possible so we could resist humanity, then spend the next several decades expanding our forces, ideally training a new generation of Four Heavenly Kings to replace us a hundred years from now.

And while reorganizing the Demon King’s Army, we would also have to devise some way of dealing with humanity’s Hero.

At that moment, Villa raised her hand, drawing everyone’s attention.

“In other words, if we intend to take complete control of demonkind, even temporarily, then rather than waiting until after we have subdued them, we should first simultaneously announce our guardianship of Ms. Mureen and our appointment as the Four Heavenly Kings, then summon the influential figures of demonkind for an official presentation.”

Villa said the quickest method would be to gather all those influential figures together, demonstrate the strength of the Four Heavenly Kings, and force them into submission.

Well, she had a point. That certainly sounded much faster than Bella and me going around beating them down one by one.

If anyone refused to come, we could simply regard that as a declaration that they had no intention of obeying and go beat them down afterward.

It would also let us see how Mureen’s brother reacted.

“Then I’ll be the messenger who delivers the invitations. Once I’ve visited each place as an envoy, I’ll also be able to teleport there later if we need to storm in and beat them up.”

Anis readily supported Villa’s proposal.

I see. That would certainly help demonstrate our strength as well.

Even if someone tried to harm Anis while she was acting as our envoy, she could return here in an instant.

“Oh, then me too! I’ll go with Anis! If I’m there, I absolutely won’t let anyone catch us with a surprise attack!”

An enthusiastic Pisca fluttered down onto Anis’s shoulder, puffed out her tiny chest, and stood there proudly.

As everyone spoke one after another, Bella’s three heads swiveled from side to side, looking around.

She was probably trying to think of something she could contribute too.

“Yeah, Bella, you’ll guard Mureen. Either you or I need to stay with Villa and protect her at all times.”

But Bella’s role wasn’t the same as theirs.

Because Bella protected things, I was free to move, and when Bella went on the offensive, I could devote myself to defense.

That was how our relationship had always worked.

“Then it’s settled. Villa, I’ll leave the schedule for our next steps to you. Anis and Pisca, gather information by asking around and report everything to Villa. Bella, you’ll stay with me and handle security.”

At my words, all my subordinates nodded at once—or rather, the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon King’s Army and the Demon King’s deputy did.

And so began the long years of our activity in this world.