“You truly are a Demon King. Keeping something here that can be a weakness is indeed dangerous. You must battle against the other Demon Kings from now on. The last thing you need is for some Heroes to pester you from the side.”
“It is nothing to praise. The other Demon Kings are just too stupid. If we ever find a Hero who is targeting a different Demon King, we should leak whatever information we have and aid them.”
“That is wonderful. Use them to fight each other.”
“They do say that the enemy of your enemy is your friend. I must use whoever I can use.”
“That is most admirable. So, shall I search for Heroes that are still children?”
“Yes. And when you do, I will deal with them directly.”
“It is unheard of for a Demon Lord to kill a young Hero himself.”
“I will not be bound by old practices. It seems that my own forces are by far the weakest among the Demon Kings. If I only follow the accepted methods, that gap will only increase. And so I will retaliate by taking the ‘realist’ route.”
“Realist…”
“Yes, realist. Scheming. Increasing your power by any means and destroying your enemies. It is not my aim to become some saint-like Liu Bei. I will be a villain. Cao Cao, Cesare Borgia, Hojo Soun, Saito Dosan, Matsunaga Hisahide, they will be my references.”
“These are great rulers of another world?”
“They are men who rose to the top through various methods. Instead of dying while screaming heroic words, I would rather live with tarnished hands.”
And so I continued.
“I said that I would use any means necessary, so let’s start right away.”
“Start what?”
“I just thought of a little scheme that is in line with being a realist.”
“A scheme to overpower large numbers with few soldiers?”
“Exactly. It may go against the art of war, but it fits my style. But first, I need you to gather information.”
“What kind of information?”
“Information about the countries near here and about the nobles. Also, I would like to know about the weakest Demon King that is near me.”
“Count Ismalia’s territories are the closest to yours. And the weakest Demon King would be Sabnac.”
“You really are a walking database in a maid’s outfit.”
Her mouth formed the faintest smile at this compliment.
A most modest woman.
She rarely changed her expression, but when I gave her an outline of my plan, she looked visibly surprised.
Her mouth opened. ‘Well…’
The plan that I had suggested was bold and defiant.
She looked at me again and gave her opinion of it.
“You have such foresight, I am in awe.”
Apparently, my realist plan was acceptable in the eyes of the secretary maid.
And so it was with much relief that I explained the finer details to her.