This installment is an "if" side story. If you dislike bad endings, feel free to skip.
《Ending Conditions》
1. Demon Lord Paimon's Affinity must be below 50.
2. Lapis Lazuli must not possess any magic-type job of A-rank or higher.
2. Dantalion's Notoriety must be 100,000 or above.
There are times when people must do something even when they don't want to.
Lapis Lazuli was acutely aware of that fact right now. She stood in the Habsburg Imperial Palace. She had urgent news to deliver to Barbatos, the Empire's regent. Shortly after, Barbatos finished wrapping up her work and entered the reception room.
"Oh. Dantalion's prime minister, isn't it? What brings you here?"
She must have wondered what brought such an unexpected visitor. Barbatos looked at Lapis with curious eyes.
"Your Excellency."
Lapis had a strong enough heart that few things could stir her emotions, but even after parting her lips, the words wouldn't follow. Her lips trembled. How on earth was she supposed to say this? It was as if she had forgotten how to make a sound altogether.
Barbatos tilted her head.
"Must be Dantalion who sent you. What is it—did that bastard cause trouble again? Honestly, if he's bedridden, he should just lie still. Tsk, tsk."
"Your Excellency."
"Yes, yes. Don't be nervous—go ahead and speak."
Barbatos chuckled. There was a warmth to it, a sense of thoughtfulness. Being considerate without using explicitly considerate language—that was Barbatos's particular brand of courtesy. Lapis had often witnessed it from the side, and it was precisely because of that that she felt so wretched.
Muttering to herself several times, Lapis finally spoke aloud.
"Lord Dantalion... has passed away."
It felt as though time had frozen.
Barbatos froze with remnants of amusement still on her face. The only indication of time's passage was her expression, slowly, ever so slowly beginning to crumble.
"...What?"
The foolish echo of that question made Lapis feel even worse.
That was an instinctive denial. She wasn't repeating the question because she hadn't heard properly—it was a reflexive attempt to reject the words she had just heard.
"Early this morning, around four a.m., Lord Dantalion passed away suddenly."
Lapis spoke as clinically as she could, feeling the edges of her own mind rot away. That was the best she could do.
"The cause of death has not yet been confirmed. However, in my personal assessment, it is highly likely to be assassination."
"Wha...?"
Barbatos's expression gradually began to collapse.
"Hey. What kind of joke is this? You're lying, right?"
"..."
"There's no way Dantalion is dead. That cockroach bastard wouldn't die even if you tried to kill him..."
As if trying to stave off the collapse, Barbatos's lips turned upward. Was she trying to smile? But the desperate repair work was utterly futile. Her lips were already trembling beyond her control.
Ah—Barbatos's eyes widened as though a brilliant idea had struck her.
"I see. That Dantalion bastard is pulling tricks again. He put you up to this to see how I'd react, didn't he? Good grief, what a pathetic guy. There are things in this world you can lie about and things you absolutely shouldn't..."
"Lady Barbatos."
Unable to listen any longer, Lapis raised her voice. It was an impropriety that a lower demonkin like herself should never commit toward a Demon Lord, but she couldn't bear to look at Barbatos's face any longer.
"I believed you should be the first to know, Your Excellency. Because... Lord Dantalion truly loved you above all."
Barbatos fell silent.
Silence lingered.
"Ah..."
Tears silently streamed down her cheeks.
It was that expression. Lapis sighed from deep within her heart. Every time she delivered news of her lord's death, people wore that expression. Laura, Ivar—all of them reacted the same way.
They were now collapsed beside Dantalion's bed, wailing uncontrollably. Truly like they had gone mad. Lapis was the only one still sane enough to deliver the news, and so she had come to Barbatos.
"Ah, ah... ah..."
Barbatos covered her face with both hands.
Her delicate fingers couldn't fully contain the streaming tears. An uncontrollable torrent kept flowing through the gaps between them.
Barbatos had probably already known. A Demon Lord could sense the emotions of demonkin. From the moment she had faced Lapis in the reception room, she had already been seized by a sense of foreboding. That was precisely why she had acted so cheerfully instead.
Yes. She had known.
What could possibly compel Dantalion's prime minister to arrive unannounced in the dead of dawn. Why Lapis was looking at her with such despair. She had known all of it.
—The first man she had ever loved was dead.
"Ugh, ah... aah..."
Little by little, a wail was wrenched from her.
She had witnessed countless deaths. She had harvested countless lives. But Barbatos had never grown accustomed to death. Paradoxically, it was because she resented and feared death more than anyone that she had become the master of dark magic.
She had believed he would never die. Because he was a Demon Lord, she had believed he would stay by her side forever. She had been reassured that he was the farthest from death of anyone.
"His last words... did he leave last words...?"
"He passed away without any opportunity to leave a final message."
Lapis pulled something from inside her garment. It was a parchment scroll. With both hands, she presented the scroll to Barbatos with utmost respect.
"However, Lord Dantalion always carried his last will on his person."
"I've never heard of anything like that..."
"In the event of such a contingency, he ordered me... to deliver it to Your Excellency."
Barbatos pressed her lips together. Dantalion had chosen her as the one to inherit his legacy. The weight of the scroll felt as though it was numbing her hands.
In other words, this was what her man had left behind at the very, very end.
Barbatos wiped her tears with the back of her hand. The tears kept flowing so relentlessly that wiping them was futile, but she did her best anyway. She didn't want to read Dantalion's final words with eyes blurred by tears.
When she unrolled the scroll, a last will was written in slightly messy handwriting.
"If this will has been made public, it means I have died unexpectedly.
I have no excuses regarding my life.
However, in a rather pathetic way, life is not a one-man show performed alone. On my sorry little stage, there have been guests—some who came by chance, some who did not. My only regret is departing without being able to bid them farewell.
Therefore, I take this opportunity to bid them farewell in advance."
After that, names were mentioned. Lapis Lazuli, Laura de Farnese, Daisy, Jeremy, Gamigin, Paimon, Sitri...
And last of all, her name was there.
"Barbatos is my most faithful companion.
I dedicate to her all the love and friendship my life has been granted.
Barbatos. You have a vulnerable side that worries me. When I die, you'll no doubt put on a brave face while going absolutely haywire on the inside. The specific list of this haywire behavior is as follows, and I ask that you follow my prescription to the letter.
First. Do not worry about whether you failed to do something for me.
You always showed me more affection and understanding than I deserved. I guarantee this.
Second. Do not worry about whether you could have prevented my death.
Just as your life is wholly your own, my death is wholly mine. Respect my ownership. You, of all people, will understand what that means.
Third. It may seem like truly unnecessary solicitude, but in case the thought crosses your mind—do not suddenly renounce your carnal desires out of some misguided notion of chastity.
That would be placing an unfair burden on a dead man. I strongly advise against it. Respect the deceased."
That was it. Not a single trivial word like "I love you" or "stay strong" was included. Instead, he had hurled insults. Barbatos understood perfectly well why Dantalion had left such a will.
"You bastard... you son of a bitch..."
As if her wiping of tears had been for nothing, the crying started anew. She folded the scroll tightly and raised her head.
"That I, too... have the right to grieve..."
It was raining.
Lapis endured the terrible days that followed.
Barbatos oversaw the funeral, but the bulk of the administrative work was left to Lapis. Lapis had insisted on it herself. She had no intention of leaving the handling of her lord's death entirely to someone else.
The funeral... she didn't want to think about it much.
Lapis had only fragmented memories. The funeral, held at the Habsburg Imperial Palace with full imperial honors, was thronged with enormous crowds. The sickeningly vast number of people seemed to obstruct her memories.
The worst moment was when Demon Lord Gamigin clung to the coffin.
"AAAAAAH! Aah, ah, waaah—!"
Gamigin screamed in agony as he clutched Dantalion's coffin. His voice, imbued with magical power, echoed beyond the palace walls across the entire city.
"I'll kill them! I'll kill them all! I'll never forgive them! Never...!"
What was he refusing to forgive? No one could restrain a Demon Lord. Gamigin cried for over an hour before collapsing from exhaustion. It was a scream straight from hell...
From that day on, everything fell apart.
Laura, Gamigin, and Ivar—the three of them drove the madness.
Laura executed Daisy that very night of the funeral. She held her responsible for their lord's death. Lapis didn't even have time to intervene. Laura's blade cleaved through Daisy's neck.
"There is no meaning in any place without our lord."
"Then where are you planning to go, Laura?"
"Where else could it be?"
Laura smiled chillingly as she wiped the blood from her blade.
"To where our lord is. But going empty-handed—surely even our lord would be disappointed."
Laura departed, leading every monster left in the Demon Lord's Castle.
"..."
Lapis lacked both the strength and the will to stop her.
Shortly after, Laura threw herself into Gamigin's camp. She didn't know what conversation the two had exchanged beforehand. However, it would not have been surprising if the people on this continent who most fervently desired Dantalion's revenge had recognized each other at a glance...
Gamigin immediately declared war on the Batavia Republic, which had "aided and abetted three assassination attempts." Marbas of the Neutral Faction vehemently opposed it, but to no avail. Gamigin raised an army on his own.
Behind him stood Ivar Lodbrok. With the intent of committing the full financial resources of his trading company, Ivar supported Gamigin. Elite mercenaries of both demonkin and human origin gathered in droves, and the army's strength far surpassed fifty thousand.
Lapis remained alone in Dantalion's territory, handling the work. Someone had to carry on their lord's legacy...
It was by no means easy. When Dantalion died, the mana drained from the Demon Lord's Castle, and when the mana vanished, the magic towers left without a second thought. When the magic towers disappeared, the trading companies withdrew. The territory's decline was inevitable.
Even so, Lapis did not give up. This land held memories of her time with her lord. It held precious memories. These were the last keepsakes her lord had left behind. She could not give them up...
"Minister of State!"
The office door opened and Parsi burst in. His forehead was drenched in sweat—he had clearly sprinted here in a panic.
Incidentally, Parsi still called her "Minister of State." Even though Dantalion's Demon Lord army had long since dissolved into thin air. Thinking that despite his bear-like build, he was a man of loyalty, Lapis asked:
"What happened?"
"Th-that is... the army led by Lady Farnese has been defeated."
Lapis's quill pen stopped with a snap.
"I don't know the full details myself, but... it was ambushed by some army led by a Consul or something..."
"Is the Minister of Military Affairs safe?"
"...There is no word."
There was no news from Laura, the commander. In other words, she was almost certainly dead.
"...Understood. I'll look into it more carefully."
Rising from her seat, Lapis had a premonition. That the day she would rejoin Lord Dantalion was not far off.
— Ending no.03 (Dead Ending): <Ruin>
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