Council of Lords (2)
“……”
The air grew heavy and sank.
Silence stretched through the hall as the Demon Lords studied me with strange, unreadable expressions.
Say something. Anything.
I held my breath and waited for their reaction. Having every one of them just stare at me in silence was making me nervous for no good reason.
“Well, this is entertaining.”
The first to break the silence was the 4th Lord.
The Lord of the Black Sea.
Thud. Thud.
Wearing a frosty expression, he twisted his head this way and that, cracking his neck as he stalked toward me.
Is he planning to attack?
Of all the Demon Lords, this one was a certified lunatic. Not only did he pick fights at the drop of a hat, he was the kind of psycho among psychos who fed humans to his demonic beasts as snacks.
And that's exactly why… I'm so tense right now.
Merely facing him made it feel like a noose was tightening around my throat. If not for my Mental Fortitude trait, I probably would have collapsed to the floor in a very undignified heap.
“…?”
But he walked right past me, heading behind me instead.
Given his personality, I'd fully expected him to attack without warning.
“What's this? He's dead?”
I turned my head to find him prodding at the corpse of the demonkin I'd collided with, nudging it with his toe.
“He's dead?”
“Lord of the Black Sea, your jokes are going too far.”
“What, is this some kind of initiation hazing?”
The Lords in front chuckled and scoffed. I wouldn't have believed it either. A mere fly of a human killed a demonkin? Did that make any sense at all?
“You idiots. Does that look like a joke to you?”
When the Lord of the Black Sea said it with complete seriousness, the pupils of the Demon Lords trembled almost imperceptibly.
Only now were they realizing he wasn't joking.
“Is there actually a human alive who could kill a Lord-elect?”
“Hmm, no, I don't think so. He was fairly strong, after all.”
“Then that would mean this human is anything but ordinary.”
I was pricking up my ears, hanging on every word of their exchange, when it happened.
Suddenly, the Lord of the Black Sea, who had been behind me, stepped around in front of me again.
“Faster to just ask you directly. I'll ask before I kill you. What exactly are you? And why did you kill the next 7th Lord?”
He extended his hand.
A grotesquely shaped demonic beast burst forth from his palm, drooling streams of saliva as it stared me down.
Disgusting as ever.
The Lord of the Black Sea was the only one of the Demon Lords who could wield demonic beasts. Freed from any constraint of space or number, he could summon them even from parts of his own body.
He gave me absolute hell in the game, too.
Just remembering the tide of demonic beasts that came surging like a tsunami still made my blood boil.
“There's been a misunderstanding. I didn't kill him because I wanted to.”
I told the truth.
It wasn't intentional. The guy just happened to be standing where I was landing—what was I supposed to do about that? Pure bad luck.
“You'd do well to answer honestly and properly. It's better for your health.”
Apparently unsatisfied with my answer, the beast in his hand yawned its jaws wide open.
…Damn it. Isn't there some plausible excuse I could use?
If telling the truth wouldn't get through to them, I'd have to lie my way through it. But nothing was coming to mind.
“Hmhm, I see. So that's what you meant earlier?”
Just then, one of the Lords cut in with a nasal, velvety voice.
A face and a voice I'd never encountered before.
And yet I knew instantly who she was.
“Rosaria, we know each other?”
Rosaria, the Blood Lord.
She'd changed her face and her voice, but there was no mistaking her. The distinctive allure and aristocratic poise that radiated from her was in a league of its own.
“I'd say we're acquainted. Ah, wait—with this face, I suppose it's our first meeting?”
With that, Rosaria burst into a fit of giggles.
“Didn't take you for someone who'd pal around with humans.”
The Lord of the Black Sea said in a sneering tone. She simply smirked and replied.
“Well, he seems smarter than you, so I'd like to be friends.”
“Shut that mouth, or I'll tear you apart first.”
“Not a shred of manners. You make my skin crawl just talking to you.”
Rosaria said with an expression of pure distaste. At that, the Lord of the Iron Fortress beside her spoke up.
“Rosaria. What were you about to say?”
She swept her hair back once before answering.
“How dense can you all be? Still haven't figured it out? That man didn't kill the Lord-elect because he wanted to.”
Her eyes went wide and round.
Wait, Rosaria is actually sticking up for me?
It was all the more appreciated coming from someone I'd never expected to take my side. I'd thought our first meeting had been a total bust, but it turned out she might be a genuinely decent person after all.
“He had no choice but to kill the next 7th Lord—to take the seat for himself.”
“……?”
A wave of absurdity washed over me at her next words. For a second there I thought she understood me, but of course it was going to be like this.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
The Lord of the Black Sea turned to stare at Rosaria.
“Exactly what it sounds like. You all asked earlier why the 7th Lord died, didn't you?”
She pointed at me.
“That man's doing.”
“?!”
Astonishment flooded the faces of the Demon Lords in an instant.
“Is that actually true?”
“Don't spout nonsense. A mere human, killing that monster?”
“You must have gotten it wrong, Rosaria.”
She took a sip of the crimson liquid in her wine glass, then set it down on the table.
“If he possesses the power to kill the 7th Lord in a single strike, I'd say it's hardly impossible.”
“……”
At Rosaria's words, the Demon Lords swallowed hard.
…How did this snowball get this big?
It had been a throwaway lie, just something to get Rosaria to clear out of the inn. I never imagined it would roll into an avalanche like this.
“Rosaria. Has your mind finally gone? Spreading that kind of garbage around.”
“Is it because your brain's too small? I tell you the truth and you still won't believe it.”
“What the hell are you babbling about, you wretched whore—!”
The Lord of the Black Sea made a move like he was about to lunge at her at any moment. Picking fights everywhere he went—it was exactly the behavior you'd expect from a man like him.
I clicked my tongue and addressed him.
“That's enough, Lord of the Black Sea.”
“Human. Whose name do you think you're throwing around so carelessly?”
He looked at me as if I'd lost my mind. I gazed down at him and said,
“Causing a scene in the Grand Lord Castle won't do you any favors.”
“That only applies when the Grand Lord is actually here, you moron. So which is faster—me tearing your body to shreds right now, or the Grand Lord arriving?”
I let out a sigh and shook my head.
“How tedious. The Grand Lord has been standing right over there this whole time.”
I pointed at the woman dressed as an attendant.
There was no way I could play dumb about this one.
[LV. ???]
— Level cannot be measured —
That impossible readout had been floating above her since the moment I arrived. Just how powerful did someone have to be for the system to be unable to assign them a number at all?
“You should drop the tiresome act, Grand Lord.”
At my words, the attendant flashed a bright smile.
“Wow… now that's impressive. How did you know?”
The Grand Lord, Ariel, had been watching everything unfold from the very beginning.
It had started as a little surprise gift for the Demon Lords she hadn't seen in ages, but somewhere along the way the timing had slipped past her, and she'd never managed to reveal herself.
And in the midst of all that, a single human had seen through her disguise.
“How did you know?”
She regarded the man with an expression of pure fascination.
In all this time, aside from the 7th Lord, no one had ever unravelled her identity.
“I'm more surprised that anyone didn't.”
The man said, glancing sidelong at the Lord of the Black Sea.
“Why, you insolent human bas—!”
“Enough. Enough.”
Ariel held the two of them apart. Then she chuckled and asked,
“Are you really a human?”
“Think whatever you like.”
Her eyes sparkled as if she'd stumbled upon some mysterious new creature. She had lived for tens of thousands of years, yet this was the first time anyone had intrigued her like this.
“Grand Lord! Are you seriously going to let this slide? Hiding your identity to play these twisted little games—what do you take us for?”
Just then, the Lord of the Black Sea raised his voice, his face contorted with fury.
“Ahaha, sorry, everyone! Are you mad?”
“…Grand Lord.”
“That was going too far, even for you.”
The other Demon Lords shook their heads in weary unison. She had always been utterly impossible to predict.
“Sorry, sorry. Anyway, now that everyone's here, let's get the Council underway. But first…”
Ariel turned her gaze to the man and continued.
“I suppose we'll need to decide what to do with you.”
The Demon Lords exchanged looks of resigned inevitability and began taking their seats. She might be an enigma of a person, but when it came to getting things done, she was surprisingly thorough.
“What's your name?”
“Gerard will do.”
“Hmm. All right, Gerard. I heard what you said earlier, and it made quite an impression. Just to confirm—you're the one who killed the 7th Lord?”
Gerard nodded, his face utterly expressionless.
Ariel narrowed her eyes.
“Hmm… good. So what do you plan to do now?”
“I intend to take responsibility.”
“And how exactly do you intend to do that?”
Gerard opened his mouth without a shred of hesitation.
“I will become the 7th Lord.”
“?!”
At that declaration, every Demon Lord wore a look of stunned disbelief.
And then, the hall erupted into laughter.
“PWAHAHA?!”
“BWAAHAHAHAHA?!”
“Keh-keh-keh!”
It was absurd. A mere human, claiming he would become a Demon Lord? His dream wasn't just ambitious—it had swelled far past the point where anything could contain it.
“Hey, human. You've got this badly twisted, don't you? You really think you're walking out of here alive today? And yet—a Lord? PWAHAHA!”
The Lord of the Black Sea clicked his tongue and shot Gerard a venomous glare. The other Demon Lords weren't much different.
Then it happened.
“Well then, shall we see what you can actually do?”
Ariel said with a beaming smile.