Chapter 100
Chapter 100
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 100
Chapter Title: Demon Realm Standoff (1)
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The summer sun beat down fiercely. Cain, who had been blankly staring up at the cloudless blue sky, turned his head.
Soldiers and territory folk by the hundreds were digging into the earth and hauling massive stones. Cain clicked his tongue.
He never imagined he'd have to do this shitty work again in his lifetime... The kind of fucking construction every military veteran had endured.
Trench works. The Empire had already seized nearly eighty percent of the Demon Realm. The remaining twenty percent belonged to the Alliance.
Why had they lost that twenty percent? The answer was surprisingly simple. She—the one who'd held out for two full months—had suddenly withdrawn.
Scarlet Royal Blood, lord of the Lost Empire and the powerhouse who'd single-handedly stalled the Alliance's full might for those two months.
"Even the lord of the Lost Empire holding out against the Alliance for two months is more than enough. Yeah, that's plenty."
"She could've lasted even longer, though?"
"...What did you say?"
At first, Cain had no intention of grilling Scarlet. Quite the opposite—he'd planned to praise her for carrying out her mission.
Even as the ruler of the Lost Empire, dragging things out against two Masters for two months was no small feat.
He figured she'd done more than enough. But her follow-up jab changed his mind.
Scarlet had brought up a completely unnecessary detail. It felt like she was openly testing him.
"Because you ordered her to hold out for at least two months, my lord."
"...Why bring up something so pointless?"
"Who knows?"
Why? Because that's what Cain had ordered. He was utterly dumbfounded. If she were the type to just follow orders blindly, fine.
But staring at that face brimming with sadism and delight, it was impossible to see it as anything but deliberate.
Still, he couldn't exactly discipline her. She had fulfilled her orders, after all. Cain let out a deep sigh.
"...For now, I'll commend your achievements."
"Hmm?"
"No matter how you look at it, stalling the Alliance for two whole months is undeniably a merit."
Her blatant taunting attitude was the problem, but a merit was a merit. He had no intention of denying that much.
But letting a subordinate openly test her superior like this? Ignoring it would only sow the seeds of future trouble.
After some thought, Cain chose the best option available. Praise the merit... but don't skip the warning.
"Last time, my collapse from injury was the bigger failure, so I won't say more. However..."
"However?"
"If a single one of my soldiers dies due to your poor judgment, I'll gladly take your head then."
He hadn't issued a crystal-clear order, and Cain himself had needed a long rest due to his injuries.
He couldn't pin full blame on Scarlet. If he'd crushed the necromancers and immediately reinforced the Lost Empire...
They could've checked the Alliance and driven them out completely. But merit aside, the warning was necessary.
If he let this slide, it could cost the lives of people around him—or even his soldiers—down the line.
Yet despite Cain's grim warning, Scarlet remained unfazed. Or more precisely... a flush began creeping into her cheeks.
Every exchange of words with him was already a massive thrill for her.
'When that horrific hell descends soon, I wonder what kind of reaction you'll have? I'm just too curious to hold back.'
What if she disobeyed your orders? Or even if she followed them perfectly, but one person still died?
Would you break then? Or rise again? I want to know. I want to see it. That's my one and only joy.
But Scarlet thoroughly concealed her wicked thoughts for now. The tastiest food had to be savored slowly.
'That warning should get the point across. For now, trench works come first. Building forts, roads... there's just so much to do.'
Becoming the general of the 12th Army had brought more changes than Cain expected. The biggest shift? Affiliation.
Previously, in terms of rank and chain of command, he'd essentially been serving under Princess Morgana to protect the Empire's Renheim territory.
But now, the dynamic had flipped. Cain was officially recognized as part of the Empire's border defense forces, including Renheim.
As a result, Renheim was acknowledged as a national border, qualifying it for all sorts of benefits—and even direct support.
And Cain had zero intention of squandering those perks. Because he already knew...
'Wars are decided by who prepares more thoroughly. I need to gear up for war with the Alliance too.'
He'd returned the territories once ruled by wyverns and beastkin to them, in recognition of their accumulated merits.
Truth be told, it was an unavoidable choice due to a lack of manpower for development that far out, but he saw no need to spell that out.
Let them think it was proper recognition for regaining their old domains...
No need to personally shatter their illusions.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Cain Blackguard.
The weight of that name had already reached the Alliance's top brass. The undefeated general... the monster who'd conquered the Demon Realm.
Of course, plenty still questioned it, but one thing was certain: he was a target for caution.
As such, Cain's every move was inevitably reported back by Alliance spies or scouts.
Arnold, the Master holding the Alliance's twenty percent slice of Demon Realm territory, had just received a piping-hot fresh report.
Yet despite its recency, Arnold's expression wasn't exactly cheerful.
"He's treating the Demon Realm like his own backyard. Meanwhile, we..."
"At least this time, the Alliance approved unusually quickly."
"Even that's just empty permission. With no resources or talent, what can we even do right now?"
The Alliance had granted approval with rare speed, but they hadn't provided a single scrap of resources or manpower.
Arnold's army was elite of the elite, so they could manage basic barricades... but anything more required real materials for proper forts and roads.
Still, they couldn't just sit idle. He'd ordered the engineers to begin construction anyway.
'Even the slightest incident could ignite a war right now. If we don't prepare accordingly, we could get swept away just like the Demon Realm.'
The reason the Alliance had long ignored the Demon Realm? The costs were simply too steep.
Even deploying Masters offered no victory guarantees. The Lost Empire alone had taken two months,
and even that felt more like a half-win since they'd retreated on their own.
Of course, no one knew why. But the territorial gains were undeniable.
"...Found the Demon Realm core yet?"
"Searches ongoing, but no news."
"With our occupied land shrinking, we need that core first, at minimum."
"But it's a legendary artifact of uncertain existence, isn't it?"
The Demon Realm core.
The fundamental power source sustaining the Demon Realm—its true nature unknown, even its very existence in doubt.
Experts merely speculated based on the hordes of monsters spawning by the dozens or hundreds daily.
Arnold knew this full well. But pinned down by the Empire, he had no other options.
"Doesn't mean we can sit on our hands. Best to grasp at straws and give it our all."
"If the Empire's hunting it too, clashes are inevitable."
"Luckily, they seem clueless about the core. If they knew, they'd have swarmed it with troops by now."
Though whether they truly didn't know was debatable. Wyverns and beastkin were beast-like enough for ignorance,
but Scarlet, lord of the Lost Empire, was different. She might know something about the core.
Was she using her subdued Demon Realm forces to search for it? Or aiming for something else?
"Can't afford to sit back and watch. Even if it means clashing with the Empire..."
"The Empire's inactivity suggests the core might not even exist."
"I know. But if it doesn't, we're out of hope. To seize the initiative, we have to act—on something."
Arnold wouldn't budge despite his adjutant's grumbling. But who could have foreseen it?
That bitter rivals—the Empire and Alliance—would cooperate for perhaps the first time in ages, and soon.