197
I Killed the Demon King. It Was a Mistake.
Chapter 197
Caesar spoke as calmly as possible.
"We haven't negotiated yet. I need to go back and have a talk."
"You seem troubled. Am I wrong?"
"No, you're right."
Just as Raven and Agatha have their own problems, Caesar carries his own burden.
The problem is that the source of this burden lies with Agatha.
Though things are fine now, he feared returning to a state like Barre's when he was controlled by the Demon King.
Caesar stared at Borden.
"Do you truly follow Agatha?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Isn't that obvious?"
Borden sat next to Caesar.
"Because she's the Demon King."
It feels like a child saying they love their mother simply because she's their mother.
This blind obedience and loyalty feels unnatural, and it's not just a feeling.
Caesar asked Borden.
"What exactly is a Demon King to you?"
"I don't understand your concerns at all. Why are you worried about such things?"
"How many Demon Kings have you served until now?"
"Since I never met Queen Diana directly, it's three in total."
"If Queen Diana were to return to the demon realm, would you follow Queen Agatha or Queen Diana?"
"...Hmm."
Borden finally started thinking deeply.
"That's a question I never considered, so I can't answer."
"Then which way does your heart lean?"
Borden's answer came faster than expected.
"Though I apologize to Queen Agatha, I suppose it would be Queen Diana?"
Should this be considered unexpected?
Caesar's eyebrows furrowed at how easily he could switch allegiance.
"Why? You've never even met Queen Diana."
"Well, that's because Queen Diana created me."
This guy really is trash.
Couldn't he at least say Agatha?
Come to think of it, all the first-generation vampires, succubi, and beast people were created by Diana.
Could other vampires think like this guy too?
"But why are you asking these questions?"
There's no point in beating around the bush with Borden.
Caesar decided to ask directly.
"What do you think about Agatha controlling your will?"
"Controlling my will?"
"Haven't you ever felt it? When you first met Agatha, you didn't want to follow her like this."
"That's because Queen Agatha didn't show signs of being a Demon King then."
Caesar felt a chill down his spine.
When he first met Borden, he was very rational and cool-headed.
But what about Borden now?
Isn't he following Agatha like a complete fool?
"Don't you want to follow Queen Agatha?"
One thing became clear from this.
When Agatha fully becomes the Demon King, Caesar must not meet her directly.
Then he would be bound to Agatha like Borden... No, like Barre was back then.
'I really need to find Flawless. If even that doesn't work, I'll have to find another way.'
He didn't care much about Demon Kings before, but now it's different.
For the sake of his sound mind, he needs to dig deeper into the secrets of Demon Kings.
"I want to help Agatha, not follow her."
"I think I understand what you mean. You want to stand as an equal with the Demon King, right?"
"It's not about being equal, I just don't want to be controlled."
"Come to think of it, there were quite a few others who didn't want to be controlled by the Demon King like you. Especially the doppelgangers."
Caesar's eyes flashed.
"Is that why Elijah hid himself in the continent?"
"I don't know about that. But given the circumstances, that might be the reason."
"Then there must be many doppelgangers hiding on the continent now, right?"
"If you're talking about doppelgangers who didn't respond to the Demon King's summons, then yes. Originally, doppelgangers live in hiding, so finding them isn't easy. Of course, since a long time has passed, they might just be dead."
Hearing Borden's words, one thing becomes certain.
There are other doppelgangers besides Elijah hiding on the continent.
***
It was a rainy morning.
Agatha, Caesar, and Raven decided to have breakfast.
The succubi dining table had quite an earthy smell.
The food on the table mainly consisted of wild vegetables and fruits gathered near the Beast people forest, along with deer meat.
Since they weren't in a situation to grow wheat crops, there was no bread.
"Enjoy your meal."
"I will."
The response came from Raven, not Caesar.
Caesar looked at Agatha.
Agatha just glanced at Raven and started eating the deer meat without saying much.
The atmosphere was somewhat uncomfortable, like friends who had fought and coincidentally met the next day to eat at the same table.
Caesar took a bite of the deer meat.
The deer meat was so well-cooked that it only needed salt seasoning, yet it was really delicious, and it paired well with the earthy wild vegetables.
"This is really delicious! Usually, deer meat has a strong gamey smell, but there's none here."
Agatha seemed pleased with Caesar's small excitement and smiled slightly.
"How is it? Pretty good, right?"
"Who made it?"
"I made the deer meat. Cooking is my hobby."
Raven looked at Agatha as if it was very unexpected.
"Why? Is it strange that I cook?"
"It shows that you've done it a lot."
"Pretty much. I really love delicious food, so I used to hunt and cook for myself."
"Did you eat like this before the Demon Realm War too?"
"No. We didn't eat this modestly. I was royalty, after all."
Agatha's mouth corners lifted slightly, seeming to enjoy talking about the old days.
"We basically had soft wheat bread, fried eggs. And there was jam made from wild strawberries and fresh milk too. This kind of deer meat was actually quite common for us."
It sounds a bit strange listening to this.
Everything else aside, how did they get wheat bread?
Did the succubus’ farm crops?
"How did you get wheat? Did the succubus’ farm?"
"No, we brought it from Friedrich's border territory."
Are you Vikings?
Why do you keep plundering?
"Since we didn't farm wheat, we had to bring it in. The chickens were also stolen from Friedrich's border territory before, and we didn't need to get eggs separately since the stolen chickens laid them. For wild strawberry jam, we needed sugar so we had to bring that. We also brought other things like pepper and various spices."
"...Didn't you think about farming yourself?"
"Well... To be honest, it was easier to just slip into human villages and take things. We just had to enter a sleeping food vendor's dream and order them to move ingredients to where we wanted. We didn't need to work hard digging soil and farming like now."
"And absorb life force while at it?"
"Actually, absorbing life force was secondary. Honestly, before the war, how often do you think succubi needed to use life force? Hardly ever except when creating the 'Dream Garden'."
"What's the Dream Garden?"
"Just like vampires enjoy artistic activities, succubi like to create their own Dream Gardens. Caesar, remember when you shared a dream with me?"
"Don't tell me that was the Dream Garden?"
"Yes, that's right. That's my garden. I can decorate it however I want and invite friends there. Even though it's a dream world, I can let people taste the food they want."
How should I describe this?
Should I say it's like decorating rooms in ssax World that was once popular, or like the Maxrix world?
Anyway, it seems that just as vampires took up art as a hobby, creating new dream worlds was the succubi hobby.
Raven, who had been holding back, finally threw in a comment.
"You guys are really wicked. So you basically lived by plundering."
"We did give something in return when we took things."
"Return? What kind of return?"
Agatha put a fried egg in her mouth.
"We let them have good dreams. Like dreams about things working out with someone they like, or eating really delicious food, or seeing someone they miss."
"While also taking some life force?"
"Well, that varied from time to time. Once, Maya and I really, really wanted to try something called candy, so we flew to the border territory together."
Agatha smiled, savoring the sweet memory.
"But it seems candy was too expensive for ordinary people to eat, so we snuck into a fancy noble's castle to steal candy and got caught by a human child."
"What did you do then?"
"At that time, we hadn't learned hypnosis magic yet, so we were flustered, but that kid got scared instead and begged 'Please spare me!' So we said 'Ahem! Give us everything you have and we'll spare you!' and threatened them, and they gave us their whole hidden candy jar!"
Agatha laughed heartily as if it was really funny.
"That's really wicked."
"Of course, I got my bottom spanked red by my mother the next day, but I got to eat candy with my cheeks stuffed full. That lemon candy was really, really delicious..."
Agatha put wild raspberries in her mouth instead of candy.
"I want to try that candy one more time."
"Then what happened to that child?"
"That child? Well... I'm not sure? We just ran away."
"You didn't hurt them?"
"We have conscience, we didn't do that. We were too young to do anything like that anyway."
Before they knew it, the meal was over while listening to Agatha's story.
After the meal, Agatha took out a small letter from inside her clothes.
"This is my response to the letter Arch Duke sent me."
"Did you read it?"
"I had some time... Well, I was curious so I read it all."
Caesar received and opened the letter.
"Arch Duke seems quite urgent about magic stones. He put forth quite specific plans and conditions."
Arch Duke conditions are simple.
It's about officially recognizing the demon realm as a country and activating trade.
It would establish a normal trading system where gold is given to Agatha in exchange for mining magic stones, and Agatha can use that gold to buy desired goods.
"Are you planning to accept the plan?"
"I don't think it's bad. But there must be preconditions."
Agatha poured wine into a wine glass.
"First, there must be a complete non-aggression contract toward the demon realm for the next 30 years."
"Second, knights or magicians cannot be included among people who come to trade or work in the demon realm. If discovered, they will be immediately arrested and executed."
"Third, if other countries or houses invade the demon realm, the Eileen Empire including the Arch family must actively cooperate militarily with the demon realm to eliminate them."
"Fourth, declare the demon realm as an official country and recognize me, Agatha, as queen of the demon realm, and must not discriminate against demons."
"Lastly fifth, there must be a clear apology from the Emperor, Arch family, and other houses for invading the demon realm, and present specific material compensation plans."
Agatha took a sip of wine before speaking.
"If even one of these five conditions is not met, they cannot take even a single magic stone."
These are very natural conditions from Agatha's position, but extremely humiliating conditions from the Empire's position.
To have to apologize for invading the demon realm.
Has there ever been such humiliation in Eileen Empire's history?
If this is taken to the Empire as is, it will definitely face opposition and fall through.
Agatha probably knows this and that's why she set these conditions.
"What if just Arch Duke officially apologizes?"
"I'll allow only Arch family merchant ships to enter and exit the demon realm. Of course, that's only because of your face, other houses are out of the question. The Emperor must apologize first and other houses must apologize for other houses to be accepted."
He's confident he can get Arch Duke’s apology.
Arch Duke will have no choice since the ark project will completely fail if he doesn't get magic stones immediately.
He'll naturally be willing to endure that level of humiliation.
The problem is the Eileen Empire.
If they officially apologize to Agatha, the four churches will cause chaos and refuse to acknowledge the Emperor.
What about other proud nobles?
Especially Mitchell won't be able to do it.
The moment he bows to the Demon King, he'll be beheaded for insulting House Redfield.
"Okay. I got it."
"And lastly, this condition applies only to you."
"A condition only for me?"
"Yes."
Agatha cleared her throat before speaking.
"Whether it's the Empire or Arch family, if they want to communicate with me, they must do so only through you and the few people you approve."
-This should satisfy Caesar.
-And... it would be sad if you never meet me just because you left the demon realm.
-This way, you'll come to see me occasionally.
Actually, Caesar wasn't ready to face Agatha.
It was because he could be swayed by Agatha when she became a complete Demon King.
But since her intentions were good, he shrugged his shoulders.
"Is this your repayment?"
"Ahem! Something like that. How is it?"
"I have nothing to lose."
Caesar put the letter inside his clothes.
"And there's one thing I want to ask you."
"Hmm? A favor?"
"You know that Elijah officially rebelled against the Empire, right?"
"I know roughly."
"I don't think that guy Elijah will leave Luxhope alone, so I want to position the troops in a safe place for now. Can we settle near Eagle valley?"
Agatha's tail swayed pleasantly.
"Hmm, Really? How are the members composed?"