Exposing The Conspiracy

—Is some kind of conspiracy afoot?

I let out a low grunt beneath my mask. Should I interrogate them right now? Or let them off the leash for a while to see where they lead?

“My Demon Loooord~, is something the maaaatter?”

Stella clung tightly to my arm.

“Stella, wait a second. Right now I’m—”

“Ah, there you are!”

Just as I tried to pull away, Rilim came rushing over.

“Ehehe, I’m all squishy~”

She had turned into an amoeba-like shape that barely retained a human form and began tangling herself around me. Is she getting even drunker…?

“My Demon Lord~, feel my squishy, bouncy slime skin~. Feels good, doesn’t it~?”

It certainly was a pleasant sensation. —Wait, no, that’s not it!

“My Demon Lord, please pay attention to me too~”

Stella clung even tighter to my other arm.

“Usually, I hold back because I have to support you as your aide… but the truth is, I want to know more about… the Demon Lord’s heart.”

Stella gazed up at me with dreamy, glazed eyes. She’s drunk… she’s definitely drunk too…

“Sorry, but could you two let go for a moment?”

I stole a glance at the men from before; they were starting to move toward the exit.

“My Lord, look, look~! My body can stretch this far~!”

“My Lord, I don’t like it when you only stick to Rilim…”

Caught between Rilim and Stella, my movements were completely sealed. In the meantime, the group disappeared through the exit. For a split second, one of them looked back, directing a piercing gaze at me—a gaze filled with unmistakable hostility.

A few days later, in the Demon Lord’s office.

“As per your orders, I have investigated their backgrounds, my Demon Lord,” Stella reported.

The list she handed me contained the names and official ranks of the three demons. They were beast-kin and were all subordinates of Zegart the Beast Emperor.

“What kind of person is this Zegart?” I asked Stella. “He’s currently invading the human world, right?”

“Yes. He should currently be leading a legion of beast-kin demons in battle on the Southern Continent. However, reports from him have been intermittent over the past month,” Stella explained. “He is one of your top aides—one of the Seven Great Demon Commanders—and he was also a candidate for the throne.”

“A candidate… for the throne?”

“There are generally two reasons for a change in the Demon Realm’s ruler. One is when the King passes the throne to a newcomer due to waning strength. The other is when a new King is chosen upon the previous ruler’s death.”

“My case was the latter.”

“Correct. In this instance, the Demon Lord’s crest held by the previous ruler automatically transfers to the one most fit to be the next King. In the former case, however, the predecessor chooses a successor from among multiple candidates to inherit the crest.”

Stella continued her explanation.

“The King from two generations ago was reaching old age and decided to choose a new Demon Lord. The candidates at that time were Lady Yurisha, who was a Demon Commander then, and Zegart.”

“So Zegart lost the selection back then.”

“Yes. Even after that, Zegart seemed quite obsessed with the throne…”

—And yet, he wasn’t chosen this time either.

“Hmph, a crest in the hands of the unworthy will eventually…”

“Just as planned… Lord Zegart will be the new… King…”

“After that… at the meeting…”

I see. It all connects to their suggestive conversation at the party.

“Does that mean Zegart is aiming for my position?”

“I think…” Stella hesitated for a moment. “It is highly probable,” she said with a grim expression. “He has been involved in various suspicious machinations for some time now.”

…So the demons aren’t a monolith either. Well, the human world is exactly the same.

“When the Demon Realm itself was in crisis due to the war with the Heroes, they likely didn’t have the luxury for such plots. But now that the barrier is repaired and a degree of stability has returned—Zegart may have begun a new scheme.”

“We should keep an eye on their movements.”

“I shall have them tailed. I will notify you as soon as there is any suspicious activity.”

“I’m counting on you.”

Then, on a weekend night.

Having received word from Stella that they had begun to move, I left the castle. I headed toward them, accompanied by Stella and a small number of soldiers. Their meeting place was a dilapidated mansion on the outskirts of the city below the castle. It had the distinct feel of a clandestine gathering.

“Stella, you and the soldiers wait here. Come when I give the signal.”

I had them wait near the mansion while I approached alone. With my power, it wouldn’t matter if I were ambushed. Conversely, approaching with a large group might tip them off. My primary goal was to learn what they were after.

“Ability Gear.”

Reaching the front of the mansion, I hid in the shadows and amplified my hearing. Their voices drifted out to me—.

“…Has Lord Zegart still not returned?”

“The orders are to observe the Demon Lord’s movements for a while longer.”

“Yes, he praised us, you know. He was pleased that when the Heroes attacked through the barrier, we intentionally left the path to the Demon Castle undermanned.”

“Everything went according to plan up until one of the Heroes defeated the previous King, but…”

“Yes, the fact that the one chosen as the next King was not Lord Zegart, but some unknown demon of no standing, was a miscalculation.”

“Lord Zegart is the strongest warrior in the Demon Realm. We assumed that if Yurisha vanished, Lord Zegart would undoubtedly be the next Demon Lord…”

“Had that happened, Lord Zegart would have made a triumphant return from the human world. He would have wiped out the Heroes and saved the Demon Realm—and we would have been appointed as high-ranking ministers.”

“Hmph, the current Demon Lord will be stepping down before long anyway. Whether it be an ‘unfortunate accidental death’ or a ‘death from a mysterious illness’… it will be something like that.”

“Hehehe, quite true.”

“And then, this time for sure, the throne will belong to Lord Zegart—”

—Wow, they’re talking about some pretty heavy stuff.

If this is true, the reason Lyle and I—and the other Heroes—were able to reach the Demon Castle so easily was because of their sabotage. I did think it was strange that there were so few guards on the road to the Demon Lord…

“Well, the rest will wait until Lord Zegart returns.”

“Fortunately, the rookie Demon Lord repaired the entire barrier. The Heroes won’t be invading the Demon Realm for a long time.”

“We move now, and by the time the next great war comes, our leader Zegart will be the new King—”

Not on my watch.

Having heard this much, the suspicion was more than enough. If it were just the talk from the party, they might have brushed it off as drunken nonsense, but this was on a level where they couldn’t talk their way out of it. Now, it was time to capture and interrogate them.

“Thunder.”

I fired a lightning strike with the power throttled down to the absolute minimum. With a loud bang, the door was blown to splinters. In the process, the surrounding walls crumbled into ruins as well. Even with the power suppressed to the extreme, blowing up only the door is difficult. The fact that my attack magic is too powerful and hard to control is a real drawback.

…Well, compared to the catastrophe of erasing the entire mansion or turning the area into a wasteland, I’d say this was a job well done. I stepped over the rubble and entered the mansion. Using that explosion as a signal, Stella and the others should be surrounding the place now.

“What is the meaning of this!?”

They came rushing out of the back room in surprise.

“The… the Demon Lord…!?”

“Why are you here…!?”

“H-hiieee…”

“I heard your scheme quite clearly,” I declared heavily, looking at the three of them one by one.

Every one of them was pale. Even if they looked down on me in the shadows, they were clearly terrified now that we were face-to-face.

“I shall make you realize exactly who you are dealing with.”

I flicked the hem of my robe and spoke arrogantly:

“The power of the King of the Demon Realm—witness it.”

…That might have been a slightly over-dramatic line.