Dungeon Defense (WN)

Chapter 354: Neutral Nation (7)

Chapter 354: Neutral Nation (7)

Military soldiers are as fast as lightning once they start moving.

A unit of the Demon Lord army positioned nearby departed as soon as the order was given. The imperial capital was instantly swept. It didn’t take even an hour to drag in twenty-six demon archdukes. The soldiers were truly gifted.

“What is the meaning of this?!”

“You cannot do this, Your Highness!”

The archdukes had been staying in the capital for the past few days. They ended up being held in place due to the big meeting suddenly being delayed. It was only natural. The meeting was nothing more than an excuse anyway.

“We acquired a testimony claiming that you archdukes were involved in the recent assassination attempt.”

“……!”

Shock spread through the faces of the archdukes.

The group I was aiming for through this incident wasn’t the independent Demon Lords. The archdukes ruling as they pleased in the demon world while the Demon Lords were absent have always been a thorn in my side. I didn’t care what had to be done to bring these people outside.

“We received a rather interesting testimony. They claimed that a portion of you schemed so that the Crescent Alliance expedition would keep failing. Those individuals will all be executed.”

“W-We are being framed……. There is no way a traitor like that would be among us.”

“That is not for you to decide right now.”

The archdukes stared at me with trembling eyes.

“T-Then who will decide?”

“I believe you have misunderstood.”

I raised the corners of my mouth.

“I simply said that that is not something for you to decide at the moment.”

From that night on, the archdukes were tortured horrendously.

The archdukes finally understood why they had been gathered.

—A purge of blood.

I knew that the Demon Lord Army had always failed due to internal reasons. Now that I was officially pulling the strings, there was no way that I would let something as ridiculous as that unfold again. Why did we need archdukes? Would it not be better without them?

Demon Lords were enough as rulers.

It would be leagues better to cleanly wipe out the other remaining militant groups.

Of course, there is no evidence that the archdukes were connected to the assassination. Therefore, it had to be made. A Demon Lord’s testimony was highly valuable. The independent Demon Lords were basically bait to capture the archdukes…….

I used the same method I used with the independent Demon Lords on the archdukes.

“You archdukes deliberately interfered with the Crescent Alliance expedition. Am I correct?”

“It was revealed that during the 2nd Crescent Alliance, you made a secret deal with the traitorous Baal to cut our supply line. Accept it.”

The archdukes failed to endure for even four days before they admitted to the crimes.

Out of the twenty-six archdukes, eleven of them were deemed guilty. They were the ones who were especially hostile to Demon Lords. The remaining fifteen were found innocent. Half of them were the archdukes who gave me thousand gold bribes in the past…….

If you wish to live safely, then cooperate with us. This was what we were telling them.

Did she find it weird that I let a fair bit of archdukes go?

Barbatos, my accomplice, pouted as she complained.

“What? Why not use this chance to wipe them all out?”

“You aren’t supposed to kill everyone in a purge.”

I answered while drinking my wine.

“If we kill all of them, then we will become tyrants and not rulers.”

“Hmm. What’s the difference? I feel like we’ve already become tyrants.”

“There’s a very large difference. It determines what you must do to survive.”

Politics and battlefields share various similarities.

If I were asked to point out what was the most similar between the two, then I would answer “there are no perfect victories in either” without any hesitation. Even if one manages to wipe out their enemy without losing a single soldier, that still wouldn’t be a perfect victory.

Someone may become jealous of your accomplishment and start to scheme against you. The people of the enemy nation will treat you as a slaughterer and despise you for generations and generations. That grudge and hatred could lead to your decisive defeat in the future…….

“The uncooperative ones were the ones who were deemed guilty. The archdukes who were relatively friendly to us were deemed innocent. We don’t kill just anyone. We made them clearly understand that we will only kill those who are uncooperative.”

In other words, we gave them a guideline on survival.

I swayed my wine glass.

“There’s no reason for us to go out of our way to kill the cooperative archdukes as well. They should become loyal hounds since they have experienced fear once……. If we throw them some snacks here and there, they will probably shake their tails for us energetically.”

“Treating archdukes like a bunch of dogs, huh?”

Barbatos giggled.

Once I laughed along with her, Barbatos suddenly pulled me into a kiss. It wasn’t a light display of affection. It was a deep kiss. Well, the way Barbatos showed her emotions has always been heavy…….

“Uu……hahh, hnn…….”

On a side note, we were currently in Emperor Rudolf’s bedroom. We were here under the pretext of giving him the first report of the interrogation result.

Of course, there was no way Emperor Rudolf would be alive and moving as he was currently shoved into a corner of the room like a doll and watching the two of us make out passionately. Barbatos and my breathing naturally became heavier the longer our kiss lasted.

Once I barely managed to pull away, I smiled at her teasingly.

“Your Highness Regent, I am aware that you are in heat all year round, but I do not believe that this is an appropriate place to have secret coitus. We are before His Excellency the Emperor.”

“Did you know? Your entire body has been giving off the smell of blood for the past few days.”

Barbatos grinned as she pressed herself against me.

“For some reason, I like it when you’re like a son of a bitch.”

“That’s because you’re a pervert.”

“Keke. Who’s calling who a pervert?”

Barbatos sat on top of my legs. I was seated on a chair, so we naturally ended up leaning into the chair together while looking at one another. We shared another kiss.

“Mm……mnn…….”

As a regent of a nation, the clothes Barbatos had to wear were incredibly fancy and cumbersome. I slowly removed her clothes one layer at a time.

There was no reason to hurry. At times, my fingers would remove her top and at other times she would slide her underwear off herself. Layers of clothes fell on the ground around the chair like piles of snow.

Eventually, Barbatos’ pure white and flawless skin was revealed.

In the Emperor’s bedroom. The most secret place in the Empire.

“Hoo, haa……. Hey, Dantalian.”

“Hm?”

“To be honest, I don’t like that you’re fooling around with Gamigin.”

Barbatos has approved of me playing with other women and I’ve also gladly approved of her playing with other women as well. To outsiders, we must appear like quite the eccentric couple.

“Then what should we do, our little princess?”

I chuckled.

“Should we kill Gamigin as well?”

“Hmph. I’m fine with you just playing with her, but she goes around thinking that you belong to her. She’s an unpleasant bitch…… Hahh.”

I lightly flicked my tongue over Barbatos’ breasts.

Despite having such small breasts, they were needlessly sensitive. Once I felt like they had risen up enough, I gave them a small nibble. Rather than biting, it was more like I was grazing my teeth over them.

“Hauh, wait you son of a bitch. Stop acting like a dog in heat for a second……uhh!”

“What’s wrong? I was getting to the good part.”

I pulled my face back from her chest and furrowed my brows at her. How could she break the mood after being the one to initiate? There should be a limit to being so all over the place. Barbatos was smiling slyly.

“I just had a good idea. Look.”

Barbatos lightly waved her right hand. Once she did, Emperor Rudolf’s crown flew into her hand as if it had been pulled by an invisible line. She placed the crown on her head and uttered a “Tadah!” as she placed her hands on her hips.

“So? Does it look good on me?”

“……It seems there’s another person here who needs to be charged with high treason.”

I was so taken aback that I couldn’t help but let out a strained laugh. Barbatos’ action was so disrespectful that it bordered on being cute.

“I’m wearing the Emperor’s crown right now.”

“Yes. This is the first time in history that a Demon Lord has put on a golden crown.”

She wrapped her arms around my neck and brought her face close to mine. She was so close that I could feel her breath.

“Haven’t you wanted to violate someone in a position as lofty as an Emperor at least once?”

“…….”

A girl wearing absolutely nothing with only a golden crown on her head was undoubtedly an immoral sight. There was no way that I wouldn’t be tempted by this.

“But promise me one thing.”

“I promise.”

It was obvious what she was going to make me promise even without her telling me. Why would she have brought up Gamigin? She was telling me to not get distracted.

“You will always be the best for me, Barbatos.”

“……You catch on needlessly fast.”

There was probably no need to say more than this. I pressed my lips against hers.

On that day, I made a mess out of Barbatos in the Emperor’s bedroom, making her pass out twice.

* * *

A week went by like a flash after the assassination incident.

Eleven archdukes were charged with three hefty crimes.

First, the crime of scheming with the traitorous Baal several times and causing the Crescent Alliance expedition to fail several times.

Second, the crime of arbitrarily sending a detached force to pillage the southern area of Frankia during the later half of the Puppet War. Thus causing great harm to the Demon Lord Army’s faith.

Third, the crime of rebelling against the Holy Demon Lord Army and plotting my, the Count Palatine’s assassination.

In other words, we framed them for all the unsolved crimes that we had until now.

All three of these accusations were verified by the testimonies from the independent Demon Lords and several archdukes. The evidence was forged, but there weren’t many people who knew this. The eleven archdukes and three Demon Lords were immediately executed.

The execution was held in a public area, allowing many demons and humans to show up after hearing that Demon Lords were going to be executed. This was quite literally a rare sight.

“Curse you! Dantalian, you son of a bitch! I curse you!”

Most of them directed their final words to me before they were executed.

Brother Beleth had the honor of being the executioner today, and, as expected of someone like him, he required only single swings to decapitate the heads of Demon Lords and archdukes. His skills were impressive.

Valefor was the last one.

“Criminal Valefor, do you have any final words?”

“…….”

Valefor turned to look at me before muttering emotionlessly.

“When Baal died, I thought that it was simply because of the passage of time. When Agares died as well, I thought that the inevitable had finally happened…… I look around now and see that there is no one in this plain of existence that is willing to defend me.”

Valefor let out a sigh.

“I overlooked unnatural deaths as being natural, so my death being buried under the passage of time is the natural price I must pay. However, my foolishness is my biggest remorse……. Leave me like this.”

Brother Beleth nodded.

His large axe flashed through the air and, after an audible “Thuck!”, something dropped to the ground. The spectators cheered and applauded at the Demon Lord’s death. Like this, the internal groups that could potentially become hostile to me were wiped out…….

A few people who believed that a Demon Lord’s blood had miraculous effects sent their kids out to soak pieces of bread in the blood. Children came running out from between the adults.

“Should we stop them?”

The guard captain asked me carefully. I shook my head.

“You heard his last words, did you not? Leave him be.”

“Understood.”

The children ran off after soaking their bread in crimson blood. Their faces were shining brightly knowing that they had successfully done what their parents had instructed them to do.

This was the last scene left behind by the fourteen people that consisted of Demon Lords and archdukes.

***

TL note: Thanks for reading the chapter. I really apologize for the late chapter. I didn’t mean for this to come out so late. Just a fair bit of things happened over the weekend and at work that uploading this chapter kept slipping my mind. My brother’s wife finally gave birth last weekend, so I guess I’m an uncle now. My relatives from the states are also visiting and we already had dinner with them twice since it’s been like 20 years since they came back to Korea. So yeah, just a whole bunch of things happened.

On another note, people kept saying to have a good Japan trip, but that isn’t until the end of May. I mentioned it in the last chapter because I wanted to prepare a leeway in chapters so I wouldn’t leave you guys hanging for too long when I actually go.

Welp, in any case, next chapter maybe sooner? Not too sure since I actually wasn’t able to get much translating done with all the family stuff going on. I’ll see you guys in the next chapter.