78 Chapter 78: Negotiation (1/2)
”That has to be the most stupid thing the goddess Evelyn did ever,” I muttered in disbelief. ”Choosing Kobayashi to be her hero. I thought she wanted us to save the people of Restia, but it ends up with the main hero enslaving the human populace of Restia without any resistance, and becoming a tyrannical emperor who rules over this world?!”
”Well, it's not as if there isn't any resistance,” Takeda informed me. ”There are several human kingdoms who refused to bow down to Kobayashi's rule, especially because he pissed them off by killing their kings and queens. The royalties of those countries have formed an alliance to resist his dictatorship, and are rebelling even as we speak. Perhaps we can persuade them to join our cause, to ally with the demons to fight against Kobayashi. To be honest, he's the greatest threat to Restia now, not the demons.”
How ironic. The heroes who were summoned to save Restia from demons had become the most dangerous threat to Restia itself, and the only hope free humans had of escaping tyranny and slavery was to ally with their previous enemies, the demons.
This was why you don't summon random strangers from another world to protect your world. You can't ever trust them, especially if he was a greedy, ambitious, selfish, self-entitled arrogant bastard like Kobayashi Kenji.
”Kobayashi Kenji, the self-declared Emperor of Humanity and Restia, and the biggest enemy to both you and us, the Iron Knights. Not only can he enslave the masses through his Kingly Disposition ability, he is also nearly invincible in combat with his Peerless Knight special ability and Royal Armor equipment. Not to mention, he wields the Holy Excalibur treasure sword that our Nagano-san has forged for him.”
”I bet she regretted doing that now,” I remarked. It also explained why Nagano was able to stay behind and serve as undercover in Havia City even while the rest of the Iron Knights went into hiding. She had established a close relationship with Kobayashi through forging his most powerful weapon for him in the past. Takeda nodded.
”That's why Nagano-san is so determined to stop him. She wants to repent for her mistake.”
”Nagano-san should cut herself some slack. It's not as if she or anyone could have predicted Kobayashi going this far.”
Takeda snorted. ”I'm sure you have already anticipated that.”
”What do you think I am?” I scoffed. ”I might hold a grudge against Kobayashi, but even I wouldn't imagine that he would go this far.”
Not to mention, he also had his sights on becoming not just the Emperor of Humanity but also the Emperor of Restia.
The guy was totally nuts. Well, that much I already knew.
”So what exactly do you plan on doing?” I asked, folding my arms. ”You plan to ally with the demons and the rebelling human kingdoms to fight against Kobayashi?”
”That's right. And from Nagano-san's information, I can tell that in a week's time, Kobayashi intends to launch his attacks on ten different domains in Morten. Apart from Moria, he's seeking to isolate each of the strongest demonic domains and destroy them to cripple Morten's strength. Your friend – Lilith, if I'm not mistaken – and her domain is among those targeted. The force he sent a few days ago with Sakaguchi and Miyazawa as the vanguard was just to test the waters and scout out their strength. No doubt he'll personally head a much bigger force there to destroy them in a week's time. But they aren't his first target. His first target is the dwarven kingdom of Moria, which is the only exception and not part of the nine strongest domains. He intends to wreck the demons' technological infrastructure and war industry before he attacks the rest of Morten.”
”You've got to hand it to Kobayashi, he is smart,” I muttered grudgingly.
”Once he gets past all nine domains, he'll launch his attack on the capital of Morten itself, Helsguard, and kill the current Demon Lord. Upon accomplishing that, he will set up a military base there and begin systemaically rooting out all the remaining demonic survivors. When that happens, it will be impossible to defeat him.”
”Yeah. The demon race is the last great power standing against Kobayashi and his armies.”
I gritted my teeth. This was not looking good at all. We couldn't let iit come to that, or Kobayashi would be surrounded by an unassailable wall of indoctrinated soldiers and citizens solely devoted to his cause.
”And he has put a huge bounty on each of the demon nobles that lord over those respective domains, such as your friend, Lilith. You can be sure that a lot of warriors, mercenaries, adventurers and soldiers will be aiming for their heads.”
”I just hope they don't let Kobayashi's promises of rewards get into their heads,” I muttered.
”I see your penchant for puns still hasn't changed. Well, the exception is still Moria. While the dwarven kingdom does not have a strong demon noble in charge of them like the other nnine domains, they remain strategically vital to Morten's war industry. Destroying them will still cripple the demon race.”
Back in Hoshizaki's room inside Cross Castle, Yonebashi was standing against the window while Hoshizaki Kozue was seated on her bed, staring at her smartphone.
”From today onward, Kobayashi-kun has issued a huge bounty for each of the demon nobles in charge of the nine domains that he has targeted.” She frowned. ”Isn't this Tanaka-kun's friend? Lilith? Seems like she's the queen of Heamorage.”
”That's of course. Each demon noble killed will tremendously weaken the demon race.” Yonebashi Kyoko stretched her back as she turned back to Hoshizaki. ”Kozue-chan, what do you think? We'll have to protect the demon nobles, don't we?”
”Seems like it,” Hoshizaki agreed glumly. Yonebashi giggled at her expression.
”It's funny, isn't it? We were originally summoned to this world to defeat the demons. But now we're supposed to protect them from one of our former comrades. I can't believe it has come to this. Just what is Kobayashi-kun thinking?”
”I don't know.”
Hoshizaki jumped off her bed, chewing her lip. Raising her hand, she conjured a tear in space, which glowed yellow while revealing a vast darkness on the other side.
Stellar Travel: Wormhole.
”Wormhole, open!”
”Oh?”
Yonebashi lowered her ruby-lense glasses to peer at Hoshizaki's spell, astonished.
”I've never seen this move before…it looks like a spell that sends you to a specific location?”
”Yes,” Hoshizaki affirmed. ”There's someone I've to visit.”
There was sorrow written all over her expression as she regarded the dark space on the other side of her wormhole, but she did not hesitate to step through it, disappearing into the other side. Even as she vanished, her words continued to trail out back into her room.
”An old friend.”
Meanwhile, somewhere back inside Cross Castle, in an underground cave that was full of stalactites and stalagmites, the trio of guys stood in the middle of the darkness. Nishida Kensuke trembled as he raised a shaking hand to point in front of them.
”Boss…that's…”
A titanic eye looked down menacingly on the trio. Zooming out, a massive dragon that stretched over a hundred meters in length glared down on the two delinquents, purple demonic mana crackling all over it.
”…the Demonic Shadow Dragon.”
Nishida swallowed in fear. Swallowing, he gestured wildly.
”Boss, do you need me to bring Aoyama back here? Ask him what weak points this thing has? I heard it's almost as strong as an ancient dragon.”
Suzuki Shirou glared at Nishida, his veins popping in annoyance.
”Why are you scared?”
With a scoff, he turned his back on the intimidating Demonic Shadow Dragon and rested his spear casually on his shoulder.
”If we can't even kill this lizard…”
His eyes gleamed murderously in the dark, almost shining golden with lightning that began to spread all over his body in response to his fighting intent.
”How can we hope to kill the real monsters that are the demon nobles in the nine domains Kobayashi assigned us to take…?”
Back in the elevator, Takeda continued with his explanation.
”As you know, there are seventy-two demonic domains in Morten. Each domain is ruled by a demon noble, guarded by vast armies loyal specifically to that lord.”
”Seventy-two, huh?”
I had heard of that. It was similar to the Lesser Key of Solomon and the seventy-two demons of Goetia, except that there were a few differences in Restia's version.
”The nobles ruling the top nine domains are on a completely different level.” Takeda narrowed his eyes. ”Each of them has the potential to be the Demon Lord, the number one Lord of all demons. And each of them has the power to rival us heroes, possessing enough combat ability to beat a party of us. If they get over their pride and ever decide to form a party of their own, they would be able to destroy even us heroes.”
Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.
Now that I thought about it, Regis and Lilith, as well as the previous Demon Lord, only ever fought alone, without asking help from each other. They did send military might, but they didn't form a party of demon nobles to take out the heroes.