Dungeon Defense (WN)

the morale of your troops would increase and decrease according to the result of the toss.
In other words, this gave a buff.

So a system in the game is treated like a ‘ceremony’ here.
But what about it? I gave Paimon a curious look.

“Dantalian, I request that you give the speech as our representative.”

“Pardon?”

“This is the Mountain Faction’s condition.
We as well will not allow room for negotiations.”

Paimon closed her mouth as if that was all she had to say.

“…….”

It didn’t make sense.
How could going out as the representative to give the speech be considered a condition? I requested a moment to think and went to discuss with Barbatos in private.
I felt too uncertain to make any decisions on my own.

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The sound of music filled the room again.
Thinking about it now, the music has an effect of preventing people from listening in on secret conversations between people.
Marbas really is thorough.

“Paimon probably shared a magical vow with the imperial princess from Habsburg.
I’m not certain, though.”

“Aha.
So that’s why it’d be troubling if she were to make the war declaration first.”

Barbatos’ speculation definitely seemed plausible.

Be it the imperial princess or Paimon, they made a secret agreement with the race their respective kinds had been fighting for over 2,000 years.
They most likely set up some safety precautions.
For example, a spell that puts a curse on them if they ever decide to break their vows and attack the other side.
Hmm.
Magic is still a new thing for me, so I never considered this possibility.
Well, it doesn’t particularly matter since there’s no way of knowing what sort of contract they could’ve made…….

“But why me?”

“She’s trying to get revenge, idiot.”

Barbatos seemed to enjoy my misfortune as she chuckled.

“Until now, you’ve constantly been scheming behind the curtains.
What do you think would happen if you stepped forward and made the declaration of war in a battle of this size? Your face will be remembered by both the humans and demons.”

“Damn it.
Her grudges are incredible.”

It made sense, but it wasn’t exactly enough to convince me.
Are you telling me she set that condition simply because of her personal grudge towards me? No matter how you try to put it, that just seems stingy and immature.
The reason why Paimon failed wasn’t due to my insidiousness, but because she messed up.
I’ve only been acting according to her plans.

I let out a sigh.

“Well……It can’t be helped.”

“Oh? So you’re going to accept it?”

“It’s not like giving a speech is going to hurt me that much.”

To put it bluntly, there are most likely only a few humans who know that I’m the Rank 71 Demon Lord Dantalian.
No, wouldn’t it be close to none? My name will go around a bit if I go out as the representative, but that’s it.

People remember the generals of the invading army, not the envoys.
At most, my infamy might go up a little.
No, if anything, this might increase my right to speak in the Demon Lord army.
If you put this into consideration, this might actually be a rather honorable position.

It was on the spot, but a good idea came to mind as well.

I immediately gave an answer after I finished consulting with Barbatos.

“Very well.
If the other commanders here agree to it as well, then I will more than gladly go out as the representative of the Crescent Alliance.”

The other commanders readily agreed.
It was because Marbas actively asked for their approval.
The blonde Gamigin didn’t seem pleased as she remained stubborn until the end, but she ultimately consented.
Gamigin was probably disappointed that she couldn’t use this opportunity to crush the Mountain Faction.

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The negotiation came to an end.

In conclusion, our Plains Faction managed to force the Mountain Faction into a situation where they will incur losses without us having to dirty our hands.
The Neutral Faction managed to show their authority once more by mediating between the Plains Faction and the Mountain Faction.
By chance, the remaining Demon Lords with no affiliations managed to prevent the Mountain Faction from monopolizing all of the accomplishments from the Crescent Alliance.
And, finally, the Mountain Faction pushed their innocence through.
Each group obtained a relatively satisfying result from this meeting.

We all agreed that we had to go to battle as soon as possible.
We had gathered an excessively large army.
Going to battle was essential for the sake of obtaining an ample supply of provisions, human flesh.

The Demon Lord army repositioned themselves in a rather disorderly way.
The Mountain Faction’s 1st legion was the vanguard.
The Neutral Faction’s 2nd legion, Vassago and Valefor’s 4th legion, and our Plains Faction’s 6th legion made up the middle army while the rest of the Demon Lords took up the rear.
It took 2 full days for us to reposition ourselves like this. 

During this, the human armies were also organizing their battle array.
We could see the Frankish Empire’s flag fluttering in the distance across the plains.
It seems the Frankish Empire was the vanguard for the humans.
War was gradually approaching.

For the past 2 days, I was shut in my quarters busily preparing a speech.
I ended up with the important role of saying the opening words for the upcoming war, after all.
I’d become the laughing stock of 200,000 soldiers from both the human and demon sides if I accidentally bite my tongue during my speech.
I won’t embarrass myself like that!

“I believe that much preparation is enough.”

Lapis commented.
Referentially, it was around this time that she, an employee of the Keuncuska Firm and my exclusive merchant, had arrived.
It felt like a long time had passed since I last saw her pink hair.
Even though it had only been 2 months since we last met.

“You can never have enough practice.”

“Haa.
Is that so?”

Up to this point, she had been following my orders and spreading rumors throughout the human and demon worlds.
Furthermore, she made contact with leading members of the human army by using bribes when necessary.
In other words, she had been moving as my hands and feet while I was out on this expedition. 

“In regard to Her Highness Paimon, she is also contracted to our Keuncuska Firm so we noticed her movements.
She has apparently been concentrating her efforts on gathering intel on Your Highness Dantalian.”

“Hm? On me?”

“Yes, it has already been a month since she has started.”

A lot of time has already passed if she started a month ago.
She’s been gathering information on me all this time?

“……Did she notice that I’ve been acting behind the scenes?”

“My information gathering did not manage to get that far.”

However, Lapis continued.

“Be careful.
Her Highness Paimon is not one of the highest-ranking Demon Lords only in name.
There is a chance that she could be hiding a trump card.”

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter.
The general consensus seemed okay with me putting early access chapters on my Patreon, so I spent the past few days just translating as much as I can so I wouldn’t delay my normal releases but also have extra chapters on my Patreon.
I’m not really sure what a ‘fair’ price would be, so I set the chapters to be accessible by people who pay $3 or more.
Custom pledges, unfortunately, don’t allow you to see the posts even if you pay more than $3 because Patreon isn’t advanced enough for that apparently.
They’ll only let you see posts meant for ‘All Patreons’.

In any case, I guess we’ll see how this goes.
I’ll see you guys in the next chapter, or on my Patreon now I guess?