“This sucks…”

  “Did you say something?” The woman with good posture who’s walking ahead of him looks back.

  The demon king turns his way, too. His black hair is done up for a change, and he’s wearing a grand white Kilvas-style cloak. “You aren’t used to the cold yet, are you? I’m sure you’d prefer to hurry back to Ellmeyer, but put up with it for a little while.”

  The dangerous red eyes that are focusing a mountain of hostility on Isaac are exactly the same, though. Shut up and obey me. That order comes through loud and clear.

  “Your palace is warm, Master Clau— Er, Vica.” The woman leading the way quickly corrects herself. “Divine stones are used to adjust the temperature inside. This way, please.”

  After they step into the palace, the air grows warmer. It feels weird, though. It isn’t the sort of heat one would feel from basking in spring sunlight. Beside Isaac, Jasper is also looking around uncomfortably.

  This is a waiting room for attendants; this is a reception room; this is the bedroom. As they’re shown around, Isaac rapidly memorizes the layout. While Jasper isn’t allowed to take notes or photos, he’s still taking this chance to stroll around the rooms, acting as if he’s admiring art objects and things.

  It doesn’t look as if there are any listening devices or what have you.

  The defense industry is a high priority in Kilvas, and their technology is very advanced. People call Ellmeyer a military power as well, but since the previous emperor got rid of magic and demon-stone technology after Demon King Claude was born, they’ve stagnated for twenty years or so. At this point, Claude and Aileen are scrambling to do something about it before they run through all their banked technology.

  On top of that, Kilvas once enjoyed support from Hausel. The fact that they’ve incorporated something as sophisticated as the Valkyrie system in their defense policy shows the progress they’ve made.

  Well, there are pros and cons, I guess. Overreliance on another country for technology and resources can destabilize your nation.

  This was what made diplomacy such a pain. Commerce was better.

  “This is the office.”

  The room is the last stop on their tour, and Isaac guesses it’s probably the one Claude wanted to see.

  The office of Emperor Vica of Kilvas—a room completely filled with the emperor’s work.

  However, the individual who’s boldly sitting at the ebony work desk is a bride who’s just come from her wedding. When Isaac glances at Jasper, the man silently mouths the words for him. Her name is Diana Nelasov—or Diana Tsar Kilvas, at this point.

  The woman who guided them here looks surprised. “…Why are you here? What about the preparations for the banquet?”

  “The court ladies like soirees; I can leave it to them. Governing is more important. Cattleya, these are the documents I’ve approved.”

  “You used the state seal? Without the emperor’s permission?” Claude asks Diana, looking at the tray of documents.

  Diana gives him a weary look. “The emperor isn’t here, is he? I’m supposed to do it. That’s why I got married. It’s my job.”

  “I see. However, isn’t the upcoming banquet also your job as empress?”

  “I’m not the sort of woman who can get by with just smiling at soirees, like your wife.”

  I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that. Isaac averts his eyes, and then a man with light hair hurries in. When Isaac glances at Jasper again, Jasper gives him the answer.

  Ernst Helken Dolf, prime minister of Kilvas.

  “Diana and Cattleya, what are you doing?! There’s practically no time left until the banquet. Hurry and get ready. It’s right after the wedding. Not attending isn’t an option!”

  “…In that case, pass those documents at tomorrow’s council, Ernst.” In response to the man’s threatening look, Diana reluctantly rises to her feet.

  “Make sure to take Cattleya wherever you go, please. Empresses don’t wander around on their own. I’ll take charge of Master Claude.”

  “This when you’ve always ordered me to charge at demons alone.”

  That comment from Diana shuts Ernst up. The guy’s stupidly honest, Isaac thinks. Cattleya sighs and pushes Diana’s back, steering her through the door.

  Ernst turns to face Claude. “I’m very sorry. We asked you to substitute for Vica, and yet we’re being so careless.”

  “You’re the one who’s been making all the arrangements, right? You’ve been a great help.”

  Ernst blinks, then smiles. “I really should be saying that to you. You’ve even handled our various blunders so calmly… Your retainers in Ellmeyer are fortunate. I would imagine their lives are quite untroubled.”

  There’s a moment’s pause, and then Claude assumes a competent, serious expression. “I do my best to ensure that is the case.”

  When lies are that bold, commenting on them doesn’t even feel worth it. Beside Isaac, Jasper wears a faint smile.

  “Now then, I was supposed to prepare for the banquet, wasn’t I? Leave the clothes over there. I’ll be changing with magic. Do we need anything else, Isaac?”

  Claude has called on him out of nowhere, and Isaac frowns. “I’m just a liaison. So’s Jasper.”

  “You can’t mean you don’t want to go back to Ellmeyer, can you?” Claude pulls a deliberately startled expression, and Isaac’s face tenses. “Let me introduce you again, Ernst. These are Isaac and Jasper. They’re my wife’s subordinates, but they’re very reliable. However, please refrain from informing others about this.”

  “Y-yes, Your Majesty. That’s fine, but why…? It will restrict their movements in the castle.”

  “In exchange, let me look over the contents of those approved documents.”

  Ernst’s expression turns sober. The speed with which Claude responds betrays his brilliance. Claude is saying he won’t let that nasty woman do as she pleases with the empire.

  Even before the prime minister answers, Claude seats himself at the ebony work desk. Then he bends down. Apparently, he’s discovered a wastebasket. He unfolds a wrinkled document, then gives a smile that doesn’t go past his lips. He glances at Isaac, and an ugly premonition races down Isaac’s spine.

  “What do you think of this?”

  Ernst makes no move to stop him. There’s an appraising look in Claude’s eyes. For crying out loud… Feeling a little desperate, Isaac looks at the document Claude is holding out to him. Jasper leans in from the side to peek.

  “A budget, huh? From the past few years? Tax revenue… I-is it okay for us to look at this?!” Jasper can’t believe what he’s seeing.

  “It’s fine; it was just tossed carelessly in the trash. And here we have the document the empress approved.” Taking a piece of paper out of the box, Claude sets it on the desk.

  The sight of the figures on it makes Isaac feel like tearing out his hair. “Hide it a little better, wouldja?! Increasing the military budget like this is just asking to be investigated! Fudge the numbers a little or, you know, at least try to make it look right…!”

  “Ohhh, even your uncle Jasper can tell this is funny… Haven’t the demons’ attacks settled down?”

  “Diana doesn’t think she’s doing anything bad, so she probably never intended to hide it.”

  “Where’s that increase supposed to come from?! The budget is just going to balloon; the numbers won’t match up. Is she planning to increase taxes or issue government bonds or something?”

  “…What if I told you the shortfall would be covered by Ellmeyer and Hausel in the form of reparations?”

  In response to Ernst’s abrupt question, Isaac smacks a hand to his forehead and looks up at the ceiling.

  “No, no.” Jasper waves his hands in denial. “Hausel doesn’t exist anymore. Besides, an amount like this? Ellmeyer couldn’t… Could we afford that, Demon King?”

  “If we sold off most of the imperial family’s assets and doubled taxes, and if the interest rate on the reparations was zero, we could manage it in about a decade. Five years, if we used the demons.”

  “Don’t just calculate it like it makes sense! Paying reparations at all would be insane!”

  Claude shrugs at Isaac, but this has made several things clear.

  That isn’t the part that’s giving Isaac a headache, though. “Why is Diana being so sloppy about this?! Both her document management and her procedures… I can’t believe she thought of using the demon king as a substitute when she was plotting something like this. She’s underestimating us so hard, it’s actually scary.”

  “I couldn’t have said it better myself. In fact, though, she and her faction control the military. It probably kept Vica from taking action. His position seems weak,” Claude says.

  No longer hesitant, Isaac returns the paper to the approved-documents box—then shoves a hand into the box of scrapped proposals. “Is this Emperor Vica’s writing?”

  “…Yes,” Ernst confirms.

  “Hmm…”

  Most of the documents written in that hand are in the “scrapped” box. After Isaac has skimmed several of them, Claude speaks up, sounding entertained. He’s clasped his hands on the desk. “How does my cousin look to you?”

  He’s having fun. Isaac puts all the documents back. “Do you need my call on this? Why not just give orders?”

  “So you’ll serve me and not Aileen? That’s a shock. However, in order to protect your life, I wouldn’t recommend it. Being Aileen’s subordinate is what’s keeping you alive.”

  “What kind of threat is that? …Before you answer, let me check on something: How strong is Emperor Vica? In combat.”

  “His stores of magical energy are vast, but he doesn’t seem able to use it. He may be under restrictions of some sort.”

  “Hmm.” Isaac frowns in response to Claude’s clarification. His hypothesis won’t hold together if that’s true. “Then if the Valkyries attacked him, would he get carried off?”

  “I’m not sure about that. He’s about as strong as thirty Elefases.”

  “I dunno what that unit of measurement means!”

  “You say that, but I can’t grasp the Valkyries’ strength with any accuracy in the first place… Let me rephrase: That boy is me, if I were unable to use magic without limits.”

  Jasper cocks his head. “If he can’t use magic much, I get the feeling that already disqualifies him from being the demon king.”

  “No, that’s not true. Being the demon king means the demons obey me. Vast magic power is just a bonus,” Claude says cheerfully. “The fact that the demons here don’t respond when I call to them has always concerned me. However, if Vica is the demon king, that makes sense. When I saw him in person, it seemed more than possible.”

  The king who rules over demons who aren’t affected by orders from Claude.

  That really would be a different demon king.

  “I don’t want to make an enemy of him. He’d be more trouble than the Valkyries,” Claude says.

  “That’s our bottom line, then,” Isaac agrees. “Okay, no complaints about that. In that case, it would be best if we have Vica take charge of this country.”

  “…Why do you say that?” Ernst has been listening to the entire conversation without moving, but at that point, he speaks up. Isaac looks at Claude, but Claude is acting as if he doesn’t know what the man’s talking about. Apparently, he wants Isaac to answer. He’s probably going to take it as Isaac’s assessment of his cousin. Jasper also flashes him a thumbs-up, shoving the question onto him.

  With no other options, Isaac faces Ernst. “Because the guy’s brilliant. He’s better suited to running a country than that woman’s group, at least.”

  “……!”

  Ernst’s eyes fly open; he is startled. That’s enough to show Isaac what the people around Vica think of him. They’ve been looking down on him as a puppet emperor and a doll, and the prime minister must have heard it. If he has always believed that’s not true and hung in there through all of that, his patience is impressive.

  “If nothing changes, though, he’ll stay a puppet emperor forever. Up until now, he’s been too young to have a foundation to build on. From now on, it will be because his Valkyrie empress controls the military. That said, he couldn’t choose not to marry. If a civil war broke out now, he’d lose. Am I wrong?”

  Ernst doesn’t nod, but he also doesn’t take his eyes off Isaac.

  “I hear a divine stone from the Valkyries’ weapons was found at the scene; that sounds implausibly convenient. Still, since they didn’t do it, turning clear suspicion on Cattleya and Diana would do a better job of keeping them pinned down. Wasn’t that what you people calculated?”

  “…I don’t know what you’re getting at. As you said, Vica and Diana’s marriage was vital for the nation. And now it’s come to this…”

  “That’s the demon king’s fault for sauntering over here.”

  Ernst, who’s replying to Isaac in a rather contrived way, looks startled again.

  Claude tilts his head. “What do you mean? You make it sound as if I’m to blame.”

  “I mean this whole ‘substitute’ business. You people saw the demon king and thought you could use him. That’s why you took that gamble. Am I wrong?”

  Claude seems confused. “Hmm… Hmm? Wait, you’re saying Emperor Kilvas’s disappearance was—?”

  “Self-orchestrated. By this guy and the emperor himself.”

  Although the Valkyries were probably the strongest military force in the empire, Vica wasn’t so weak that they could carry him off. What’s more, Ernst was the one who’d found convenient proof suggesting the Valkyries were behind the kidnapping.

  The answer was pretty easy to spot.

  “Haaah… What for, though?” Claude asks.

  “Who knows. Still, it’s clear it was designed to drag Ellmeyer into this mess. When you can’t deal with something internally, asking someone tough on the outside for help is a standard move. So is dragging them in if they won’t help.”

  “—I was against it, technically.” Ernst sighs, resigned; his voice sounds thin and reluctant. “If we weren’t careful, we’d end up with Ellmeyer interfering in our domestic affairs. However, Vica insisted it would be fine; he wouldn’t listen to me. It’s true that Vica’s a good judge of people. If he hadn’t been, he’d never have survived. He’s good at gambling on risky propositions as well—no, it was our only real option, so he had no choice. But even so… My stomach hurts.”

  “So you and my cousin decided I measured up?” That’s Claude’s only question for the man. He apparently doesn’t intend to get mad because they tested him or deceived him. Vica must have predicted he wouldn’t before acting.

  Man, that’s scary. A proactive demon king who’s good at gambling…

  Just imagining it gives Isaac chills. If the retainers back in Ellmeyer heard about this, they’d faint.

  “You may think this is presumptuous, after we dragged you into this, but please allow me to apologize. I’m terribly sorry I didn’t explain anything. I wasn’t certain how much I should tell you.”

  “Just out of curiosity, what would have happened if I hadn’t agreed to this? You were against it in the first place; you must have had a different plan in mind.”

  “We would have used the emperor’s disappearance to reduce the Valkyries’ power and influence, of course. If that put the matter to bed, that would suit us just fine. If it didn’t, we would have distracted the people by using Ellmeyer as a scapegoat. At present, I believe the latter was more practical,” Ernst says nonchalantly. He’s either foolishly honest or brilliant, but he’s crafty either way. “There is another reason Vica turned to you for help. As a rule, in order to maintain the wall that protects the empire, he isn’t able to leave the imperial capital.”

  “The wall… You mean the one that keeps the demons from invading?”

  “That’s right. There is a spell built into the wall itself. It’s made so that demons too strong for even the Valkyries to cope with can never get through.”

  He’s talking about the endless thing they’d seen from the train. Isaac had thought it was impressive technology, but hearing this changes things. “…Are you maybe telling us that Hausel built that wall?”

  “Yes. The spell that maintains it is in the capital. I’m told the city was built to form an enormous magic circle, with the imperial castle at its center. Vica is the one who supplies it with power. Apparently, it’s made to siphon his magic automatically as long as he’s in the capital.”

  “Hmm.” Isaac looks at the ground.

  Claude looks down, too, murmuring, “Vica’s not in the capital now… So it’s currently being supplied by…”

  “Yes.” Ernst nods solemnly.

  After a moment’s hesitation, Isaac asks, “…It’s the demon king?”

  “Yes.”

  “Don’t give me that! Doesn’t that mean it’s gonna be bad news if he leaves the capital?!”

  “Yes, the wall’s magic may vanish, letting in demons too strong for the Valkyries to defeat,” Ernst tells them honestly. Crafty doesn’t even begin to cover his machinations; this man is positively Machiavellian.

  Claude blinks at Ernst. “…I really hadn’t anticipated that. No wonder I sensed Vica had vast magic but couldn’t use it. It’s being used to maintain the wall’s spell.”

  “Look, this isn’t the time to get all impressed. Doesn’t that mean you can’t teleport or contact the demons right now?”

  Claude blinks. He looks at the ground again, then looks up, tilting his head. “You’re right. I can’t. The magic vanishes as soon as I try to use it.”

  The demon king is far too strong and unexpectedly dumb. Isaac groans. “Realize this kinda stuff sooner, wouldja?! Don’t tell me you’re weaker than Elefas all of a sudden!”

  “Hang on. I can use a sword. I’m better than Elefas…”

  “That’s peanuts compared to whether you’ve got magic or not! What are we gonna do? We’re not gonna be able to make a break for it in an emergency!”