Ventorino Kingdom - Germination (2)
"Hmm... That's interesting news."
"I've delivered the message, so I'll be on my way."
"Ah, right. Thanks for your trouble."
"...Hmph."
The spirit gave Valdes a sidelong glare, then took to the sky in its translucent birdlike form. Watching it vanish quickly into the blue, Valdes let out a faint snort of laughter. It really was a spirit with a remarkable amount of pride.
The spirit of Yuelli—whose name he still did not know, though at least he knew its nickname—had been utterly defeated by him. It had been a release for all the irritation and fury it had piled up inside, sliced into countless pieces by the extreme edge of the sword he had wielded after so long. Even so, it only kept its distance from Valdes; it did not fear him.
Some people might have thought that was insolence, but Valdes was not one of them. On the contrary, he liked it. If it was an ancient spirit, then it ought to have that much pride.
...Ah, but that's not what matters.
He closed the window the ancient spirit had come and gone through, then sat in the chair beside the bed. This had been the guest room where he had lain recuperating. Thanks to the royal family's so-called consideration, he had been moved here to stay. Coming from the farthest outskirts to the center, if there was an upgrade in treatment, this was the sort of upgrade it was.
I meant to maneuver those two into meeting later. Well, how did it end up like this?
For him, it was a good thing.
The plan had been accelerated, but it would cause no harm.
Then, shall I let the seeds bloom?
The operation to bring down the Ventorino royal family—more precisely, to utterly crush King Marc. For that purpose, he had diligently watered the three members of the royal family, except for the youngest prince. He had fed them something sweet that was, in truth, no different from poison. It seemed about time for it to bear fruit.
Princess Clara will take a little longer, but that's unavoidable.
He had been unable to come up with an idea for that part for some time, and the delay in his actions had made it inevitable.
Still, he had tormented her in a slightly different way and, to deal Marc the greatest possible shock, had even made her dream obscene dreams to awaken that unusual fetish. It was the sort of fetish that would generally please a man, but make a father recoil in horror.
Now that the other objectives are all complete... all that's left is to crush Marc and leave soon.
There were other objectives as well. A number of them, in fact.
The first was the merit and fame needed to become a knight. Those had been completely satisfied. Just yesterday, he had received word from Beatris. He was to be appointed a knight. Given Beatris's position, which still required her to maintain neutrality, the one who had pushed hardest for it was Serenia.
He had protected the kingdom's precious two princesses from the demon raiders and even saved the royals of a neighboring nation. His swordsmanship, strong enough to stand against so many demons, had also been proven. As for the fact that he was a demihuman-demon hybrid, that was no longer worth worrying about. That was thanks to Valdes tampering with the information.
Besides, since he had become a hero in the Pedro Knights here in the Ventorino Kingdom, they had apparently decided to settle it a little early in case someone else tried to scout him away. Once everything was over and he returned to Ulsro, there would be a knighting ceremony at once.
Bess was thrilled.
Once he became an official knight of the Pedro Knights instead of a mere squire, he would be able to receive assignments separately. In other words, he could use those missions as an excuse to meet them more openly. For similar reasons, Mercede and Mari, upon hearing the news, had been delighted as well.
The second was internal control of the Demon Realm.
In other words, it was the cleanup of the reactionaries. The organization led by Eldrif and composed of pure-blood demon supremacists was the largest faction among the demons who opposed Valdes. Their leader was the child of a former Four Heavenly Kings member, and there had been many who believed just as they did—that only pure-blood demons were true demons.
But they had lost a large number of people, especially most of their core force, in the Ventorino Kingdom. And while their remnants were still stumbling around in confusion, one of the Four Heavenly Kings had personally led soldiers in and wiped them out. Some who had been frightened by that surrendered, and using that momentum, they crushed every sizeable organization in one sweep. Internal cleanup was, in effect, complete.
The last was false information.
Over the course of three days, Valdes reported the results of the prisoner interrogations. Naturally, he did not report what had actually happened. Just as he wanted, and in whatever way was most convenient to use them, he deceived everyone.
To make it more credible, he announced that the two Dark Elf prisoners had defected. The reaction was explosive. Many still doubted the very possibility of their defection, but thanks to the conditions he disclosed and the information they had provided, the mood shifted toward reluctant acceptance. Of course, there were still plenty who insisted they should be bound by contract magic or some similar restraint.
But contract magic had clear advantages and weaknesses, and it was not uncommon for the magic itself to be manipulated. Unlike what Valdes had done, there had never been a case of contract magic being entirely absent, but magic itself, if a mage truly set their mind to it, was easy enough to make behave strangely. For that reason, some of the more experienced and seasoned among them did not even favor contract magic.
In any case, the condition the twin Dark Elves—Shurette and Shurti—had publicly put forward was the creation of a village for Dark Elves. In the north of the kingdom, no less, near the forest where most Dark Elves had lived back when they were still Elves.
The reason was blamed on the current Demon King.
Not the true female Demon Queen, but the male Demon King who had ascended after Hero Pedro's death. In other words, a fabricated being. This imaginary Demon King supposedly held a fierce hatred for all beings who were not demons, discriminating against anyone who was not pure-blooded.
They also said that this was why the Dark Elves had betrayed the demons and tried to side with the continent. The nobles of the Ventorino Kingdom and Marc, who knew nothing of the truth, found it plausible based on the slogans they had heard when the twins were attacked in the audience hall.
All without ever realizing it had been a fabrication by Shurette and Valdes.
He had also fed them a variety of other false reports, saying that other Dark Elves—and non-pure-blooded demons such as succubi—were also trying to flee the Demon Realm. Because of all this information, the Ventorino Kingdom would be left with more than one headache. If they truly intended to leave the Demon Realm, there was only one path they could take.
"...Very well. Tell them we accept the defection of the Dark Elves."
"Understood, Your Majesty."
And after much deliberation, the Ventorino Kingdom allowed the Dark Elves to defect.
It was obvious what their intentions were. Not just the information, but the vile desire to use their strength and study them practically reeked from the proposal. But they didn't know just how much the Elves living in the northern Union Republic despised Dark Elves. If they took in Dark Elves, conflict with the Union Republic was inevitable.
Valdes figured Marc alone probably understood that much, but even then, he would have judged it a sufficiently tempting offer to be worth the risk.
In any case, the twin Dark Elves were now officially infiltrating the Ventorino Kingdom. Security was still tight, and suspicion was still rampant, but it was a thoroughly encouraging result.
As a small additional gain, the news of Mari's betrothal had quietly disappeared from the conversation. They had exposed royals from a neighboring kingdom to danger right in the capital, after all; no one could dare bring up the matter carelessly now. For the time being, the Ventorino Kingdom would have no choice but to dance to the Ulsro Kingdom's tune.
Of course, with the information he had obtained from Shurette and Shurti, he would squeeze a few more things out of the other nations on the continent.
Valdes had gained all of that from a single raid. Satisfied, he smiled as he checked the other reports delivered by Yuelli's spirit. The matter involving Marc and Clara's father and daughter had taken place late last night, so it had been reported verbally rather than in writing. But everything else had been neatly organized by Irena, who, true to form as a secretary, had prepared it in a way that was easy to review.
Then his eyes caught on one report.
"Come to think of it, there was this too, hmm..."
Valdes was the sort of man who preferred to prepare thoroughly for everything, wherever possible.
Of course, most of the people present at the place where the attack had occurred were under surveillance. The exceptions were the people from the Ulsro Kingdom, along with Marc and Prince Alfonso. The former were covered by trust in Mercede and Mari; the latter were difficult to keep under watch.
Using spirit avatars and a small number of demon intelligence units, he had been checking on them all quite meticulously, if not in real time.
And among them, there was one person whose movements deserved attention.
Jurina, the former vice-captain of the Royal Guard.
She had been a promising talent in the Royal Guard, but the raid had reduced her to a complete wreck. More precisely, it was because of the death of Commander Heik. That was why the title before her rank had become former. She must have been well liked, because even though she had not shown up for work at the Royal Guard for days, she had been put on leave rather than dismissed.
And then Jurina had started moving.
It was a rather precarious moment.
He had kept watching her a little longer because she was a beastman; otherwise, he would have stopped paying attention long ago. But after she pulled herself out of that broken state, she had begun wandering outside without ever returning to the Royal Guard.
And she had been investigating something.
"They said she was hugging the commander’s corpse and howling in the meeting hall... Was she fond of him? Hmm. No. That's not the important part."
Valdes shook his head.
What mattered more was what she was investigating.
Had she noticed something strange about the raid, or was she simply refusing to accept the death of the man she liked and looking into anything she could get her hands on? He needed to determine that. If it was the former, then he would have to deal with her somehow.
Kill Jurina, or subjugate her and turn her into a slave.
After checking all the reports sent by Irena and Yuelli, Valdes used magic to burn every sheet of paper to ash, then scattered the remaining ashes out the window. He had already memorized everything, so there was no reason to leave dangerous evidence behind.
"Let's see... the time..."
Just in time, even the tea time after lunch should have ended by now.
"Then let's go pay a visit today as well."
Humming under his breath, Valdes left the room. His destination was the royal consort's palace. Around this time every day, he visited Katarina. By then, the queen consort would have finished tea time with her daughters and be taking a rest.
Of course, because he visited at the same time on a regular basis, everyone knew about it. But unlike before, no one suspected anything. Part of that was because Valdes had earned such great merit, and part of it was because no one failed to notice how much gratitude Katarina had shown him for saving both her children and her husband.
Though the two of them met alone, King Marc occasionally happened to stop by as well. And everyone could tell that the king and queen were both working to win Valdes over. With an alibi that perfect, there was something happening there that people would never have imagined—no, something even beyond that.
"Mmm... ngh, haaah... chuup, nh, chubbb...♥"
"Guh! ...Haa, Katarina. Your technique's improving fast."
"Mm, haaah, slurp, ...smack♥ ...really?"
"At this point, your mouth cunt is one of the best I've ever tasted."
Even after hearing that filthy word from Valdes's mouth, the queen consort did not care. On the contrary, delighted by what was almost praise, she smiled with a sultry little curve to her lips.
"Hmm... just how many women have you been through? You're making me jealous."
"Don't worry. Who would I even be meeting right now?"
"True enough. There aren't many people worth touching here... unless you mean the envoys..."
"Katarina."
"Ah, sorry..."
"Sorry?"
"...Ngh, I'm sorry...♡"
Anyone who knew Katarina would have been stunned by the sight.
That proud, haughty woman was kneeling on the floor, sucking a man's cock. And doing it while speaking politely, no less. It was only the slightest softening of her speech, the bare addition of a polite ending, but even that was shocking enough.
"That's right. Katarina's a good girl, isn't she?"
"Huh...♥ Yes, Katarina is a good girl..."
The queen consort beamed at Valdes as he stroked her head. And she was aroused.
The queen consort of a nation, the wife of a king, acting coy and pleased before a boy young enough to be her child. The sense of depravity that came from a situation so absurd in any normal context was exciting her.
Haa, haa...♡ I really am a pervert...♡
She knew she shouldn't be doing this, but she couldn't stop. No, because she knew she shouldn't be doing this, Katarina realized just how aroused she was becoming. The things she had been doing with him in secret all this time, behind her husband's back... she finally understood why they had felt so intoxicating, so thrilling.
Depravity.
Turning your back on morality and twisting it out of shape.
She realized it was not simply a rejection of her husband, but that so many things her common sense said she should never do could all become pleasure, all become excitement.