Book 3: Chapter 29 (1/2)

“You found the demon lord?” Daniel asked the small figure sitting on his shoulder. “My liege, couldn’t you have found her a few minutes ago before I revealed I stole her panties?”

“If you didn’t steal her panties, you wouldn’t have been outed as a pantie thief,” Apollonia said with a snort. “And I didn’t find her; she found me.”

“Are you unhurt?” Daniel asked. “She isn’t angry?”

“I don’t think she even has any emotions,” Apollonia said, shaking her head. “She kills without blinking an eye. She speaks without caring about being judged. She’s a lot different than what I thought she’d be. Normally emperors are supposed to be conniving and wise, right? They don’t survive the struggle for the throne otherwise.”

Daniel furrowed his brow. “She’s neither conniving nor wise?”

“She’s as pure as a child,” Apollonia said with a sigh. “As psychopathic as one too. I wonder what goes through her head.”

“Am I being ignored again? Who summons a devil just to ignore them?” the gorilla with a wolf’s head and spider legs growing out of its back asked. “Tell me where your target is.”

“Right,” Apollonia said. “I forgot.” She turned her head towards Daniel. “Go to my southernmost mansion but pass through and gather all the soldiers from my nobles’ territories, including their knights. You have one week.”

“You just said she’s like a child,” Tafel said. “Why do you want to overthrow her still? Can’t you just teach her how to properly govern her empire? Actually, other than the fact that she’s raising taxes, you haven’t given a real reason to remove her from the throne.”

“Do I need a reason to want to seize the throne for myself?” Apollonia asked, tilting her head. “It’s natural to want power. And I’ll be a more fitting ruler as well. Everyone wins if I become the new empress.” The tiny grand duchess frowned at Tafel. “I thought you said you didn’t interfere with the politics of other regions. You’re not thinking of stopping me now, are you?”

Tafel scratched her head. “It just feels a little wrong to not stop an army from chasing one person down,” she said. “It’s not very fair, you know?”

“Is it fair that she gets to rule the empire just because she was born into the right family? If you want to talk about fairness, I want to hear nothing of it,” Apollonia said, crossing her arms over her chest. “The world is inherently unfair; it is up to us, the residents of the world, to decide whether we want to resign ourselves to our given roles or not. Who says a grand duchess can’t be empress?”

Tafel frowned and rubbed her chin. “For some reason, I just don’t like your reasoning,” she said before sighing.

“That’s because you’re a queen,” Alice said with a snort. “It’s obvious you wouldn’t like someone saying they can overthrow your position if they wanted to. That makes you a tyrant, in case you haven’t noticed.”

“I’m not a tyrant! My people love me,” Tafel said, glaring at Alice.

Alice raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure that’s not because bad things would happen to them if they said they didn’t love you?”

Tafel stamped her foot. “I’m not that kind of person!”

“Vur told me the Tafel-method of claiming a throne involves finding the current ruler of the land and smacking them over the head with a sword until they surrender.”

Tafel’s eyes widened as she whirled her head around to face Vur. “Why would you tell her that!?”

“Dragons don’t lie,” Vur said, tilting his head. “Should I have talked about the moon instead?”