Chapter 30
Chapter 30
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: The Demon Empress's Vow
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“The hero.”
Reclining on a throne carved from amethyst, a white-haired woman with bewitching silver eyes scanned the information held in the crystal clutched in her hand. Long ago, in the distant past, dragons had bestowed the power of magic upon the demonkin.
The magic of other races was, at its core, nothing more than stolen scraps of demonkin magic.
Thus, now that the dragons had departed once more for their distant home, it was only fitting to call the demonkin the true race of magic. Unlike humans, who passed information on paper and parchment, the demonkin sealed it within gems and presented them as reports.
Harma El reviewed the records stored in the crystal and smiled faintly.
“But with the tide already turned against them, what can a mere trio of nobodies hope to accomplish?”
“Now it’s five, Your Majesty.”
Sharon, the Succubus Queen, stood at Harma El’s side and corrected the misinformation.
“This comes from the demon merchant Olok. We’ve confirmed that Araidel, the Saintess of the Nemi Church, and Archbishop Lrhenheim have joined the hero party.”
A hero party still needed to eat and survive—they couldn’t hide in the woods forever.
Until now, it hadn’t been an issue at all. With demonkin scattered under countless demon kings, plenty were willing to sell supplies to the hero party for the right price.
But now Harma El stood on the cusp of unifying the demon realm.
Her influence wasn’t yet strong enough to outright forbid all demonkin from trading with the hero party, but any move they made would be traceable soon enough.
“Three or five—what difference does it make?”
Harma El gazed contentedly at the vial of hydra venom placed near her throne and chuckled.
Yet something still gnawed at her inwardly. One of her most loyal retainers, the Slime Demon King Marmannun, had risked his life to harvest several vials of the stuff.
A “few vials,” she said, but it was enough to slay countless souls.
Hydra venom naturally radiated intense heat, so the container required cooling magic. And where there was heat, there was radiation as well.
In any case, Marmannun had presented this precious venom—only to fall to the hero party. That alone was reason enough for her to despise the hero.
“Marmannun. My faithful servant risked his life to prepare this countermeasure.”
“However, Your Majesty, we mustn’t underestimate the hero.”
The holy sword—a crystallization of the Three Gods’ divinity.
This era’s hero, chosen by it, now fought alongside the Saintess, daughter of Nemi.
They didn’t even need the power to defeat Harma El outright. A serious wound on her part would topple her rule, victory or not.
Even among the so-called pro-Harma El demon kings, true loyalty was rare—counting Marmannun, who was now dead, there were scarcely any.
Most were opportunists ready to switch sides at the first sign of a stronger power, or backstabbers smiling to her face while hiding daggers.
Demon kings—kings of the demonkin. What king longed to serve a higher one?
Individually mighty, but not numerous in population, demon kings were less monarchs and more tribal chieftains. Harma El dreamed of forging these disparate tribes into a single confederation.
But her ambition to become Demon Empress inevitably trampled the authority and power of other demon kings. How many would welcome that? Many followed only because the momentum favored her.
“If Your Majesty insists on personally crushing the hero party, it must be with overwhelming force. That way, you could even use them as a sacrificial offering to cement your ascension to the throne.”
Toppling the hero—eternal foe of the demonkin—could bolster her claim to Demon Empress. For Harma El, moving against the hero party demanded utmost caution.
Success brought great gains; failure, catastrophic losses. If she acted, it had to be flawless.
“Oh, Your Majesty. A letter arrived from the Brad Ducal House in the southeast of the empire. They congratulate you on your impending ascension to Demon Empress and enclosed a gift.”
“Why would an imperial duke bother? I haven’t even declared my ascension yet.”
Harma El puzzled over it briefly, then understood. It wasn’t some distant affair.
“So the Illumina Empire isn’t as united as we are, hmm?”
“Sharp as ever, Your Majesty. The Brad family has wavered since the empire’s founding, torn between allying with us demonkin or the humans.”
Vampires. Half-formed demons (?). Shunned by both humans and demonkin, the third race.
The Brad progenitor, ancestor to these bloodsuckers, had backed the founding emperor of Illumina and earned a ducal title and lands for it. Now their descendants, sensing the empire’s tremors, reached out to Harma El on the eve of her ascension.
“They wish to join us?”
“They even hinted at an audience with Your Majesty.”
“Ha! How incompetent must that emperor be to let such subordinates run loose? It’s hard to be that useless even if you’re born to the throne.”
Harma El ordered the letter and gift brought forth.
Unascended or not, she was already empress in all but name to the demonkin—the gift barely registered. Her eyes went straight to the letter.
“No wonder he left them alone. What utter fools.”
Harma El burst out laughing at the missive from Duke Shmira, head of the Brad Ducal House. It lightened her mood somewhat.
“They want to declare independence? Fine by me. Splendid, even. If vampires crave a kingdom, I grant it. Tell them to take the entire southeast of the Illumina Empire!”
If they had the ability, that was.
In any event, Harma El had given her permission. The rest was on them.
“A fading race grasping at one last desperate spasm.”
Sharon sneered upon hearing the letter’s contents. Sun-dodging wretches demanding a nation as if they were something grand—it was more entertaining than any play.
“Even if that doddering emperor dropped dead now, it’d take time for the empire to truly crumble. They can’t wait even that long, frothing like mares in heat to crown themselves queen? To think vampires would bow to such refuse as their leader—they’ve hit rock bottom.”
“Still trapped in the past, it seems. The era when vampires ruled both humans and demonkin.”
That glory had long faded into irrelevance.
If Duke Shmira clung to it, all the better. Harma El held no special fondness for vampires—she’d use them just enough, then discard.
She knew the Brad Ducal House stood ready to defect at any moment, but it solved nothing pressing. Harma El soon realized this and grew cautious once more.
The hero party demanded careful deliberation.
“Grimudo.”
Harma El sighed.
“Why won’t that one take my side? If he served under me, we’d not only unify the demonkin but conquer the entire continent. Reduce all other races to servant stock for the demonkin, letting us revel in glory for a thousand, ten thousand years!”
“But in a way, it’s fortunate for Your Majesty that Grimudo remains holed up in the Arctic. If he lusted for worldly power, you’d be the first in danger.”
A being who could single-handedly shift the tide. Not shattered by clashing with the world, but capable of shattering the world itself.
The primordial demon king had existed long before even the Three Gods were born, fearless of the holy sword. Divine power inflicted only superficial wounds, never piercing his essence.
Even crouched in the Arctic, his might inspired awe in all demonkin.
Not even the arrogant Harma El dared look down on him. Though she’d met him only once, she harbored a deep-seated fear.
“...I need to pay Grimudo a visit.”
“Your Majesty, that’s far too dangerous!”
Sharon paled and tried to dissuade her. Against Grimudo, not even a million-strong demon army would matter. His monster legion was infamous for its apocalyptic might.
A mere flick of his finger would summon beasts dozens of meters tall to pulverize his foes. One man-eating monster, the manticore, had fallen, but his horde remained vast.
“I’m not going to fight him. I don’t delude myself into thinking I could subjugate him.”
The hydra venom itself derived from one of the monsters he reared.
Grimudo was terrifyingly strong as an individual; with his monster legion, he inspired outright dread.
He hadn’t summoned a single beast against the hero party, yet single-handedly dominated Yurinell, Panel, and Lucia from start to finish—utterly overwhelming them.
“I just want to sound him out. With all that power, why does he stay withdrawn? What does he desire? Or if he might become a threat to me... Things like that. Without knowing, how could I dare claim the throne out of fear?”
What truly terrified her about Grimudo wasn’t his power.
It was that no one knew what he wanted—or if he wanted anything at all.
The unknown itself. That was the root of all terror.
What good was unifying the demonkin if Grimudo could upend it anytime?
Without certainty he wouldn’t, she couldn’t boldly ascend as Demon Empress. She feared him.
A mere whim, a change of heart, could hurl her into the abyss.
‘And if possible... it’d be nice to secure his support.’
Even one monster from his legion—or borrowing one—would be an unimaginable boon.
The presence of such beasts would make all the difference against the hero party, and later the Illumina Empire.
Unifying the demon realm was merely her ambition’s first step.
To claim dragon’s blood, she dreamed at least of conquering the continent.
For that, she needed to gauge Grimudo’s intentions. If he proved an obstacle, she’d ally with the hero party itself to crush him first.
* * *