The coup was ultimately and swiftly suppressed.
Wakis abandoned all thought of resistance and surrendered.
The Seventh Army collapsed.
Chinpira headed toward where Wakis had been captured.
I quietly tailed him with a clone as well.
If you think clones are only palm-sized, you'd be sorely mistaken.
Performance drops, sure, but I can produce clones as small as a fingertip.
This time, to avoid being noticed, I stuck the clone onto the sole of Chinpira's shoe.
Wakis was confined in the lord's chamber under the watch of Fourth Army soldiers.
His weapons had been confiscated, but he wasn't restrained.
Is that really okay?
"Seventh Army Commander Wakis. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"
Chinpira's voice rang out, and Wakis stared back at him with a calm expression.
Huh?
I figured he'd be the type to shriek and flail like the cornered thug he seemed to be, but this is nothing like what I expected.
A defeated general, yet his posture was rock-solid.
His demeanor didn't match his face at all — nothing about it said "small-time thug."
"Blow. So it was you who fed them our movements."
"It wasn't me. We happen to have an excellent intelligence officer on staff."
…That's me, isn't it?
Since when did I become your intelligence officer?
"Wakis, why did you do this?"
"To overthrow the Demon King."
Wakis answered Chinpira's question without hesitation.
"The Demon King has appeared — I know that. And I know he's preparing for war with the Human race. That simply cannot be allowed. Birth rates that decline year after year, a populace already exhausted. Lands ravaged by long wars. A destitute lower class crushed under heavy taxes — and you want to pile even more on top? The Demon race will perish before any war even begins. The Demon King is unnecessary for what we are now. From this point forward, we must forgo war with the Human race and set ourselves on the path of reconstruction. Surely you understand that? It's not too late even now. Blow, Barth — together, stop the Demon King."
Oh, crap.
I immediately teleported.
Then I appeared behind Wakis and pierced his chest.
"Guh!?"
Wakis groaned.
Chinpira and the soldiers stared wide-eyed in shock.
I reached into Wakis's chest, tore out his heart, and crushed it in my hand.
"Rubbish. No need to hear it."
I withdrew my hand from the lifeless Wakis's chest.
His corpse, robbed of its support, toppled over and then sank into the floor with a sickening squelch.
First fresh meat in a while.
"Why… why are you here?"
Chinpira asked in a hoarse voice.
I have no obligation to answer, but maybe I should use this to make a threat.
"Death to all who defy the Demon King."
With that, I vanished via teleportation.
That should be a sufficiently terrifying warning, right?
Chinpira had been visibly shaken by Wakis's words.
Turns out the guy staged a coup backed by genuine, well-rooted conviction — not just a thug's bravado after all.
And some of what Wakis said must have resonated with Chinpira too.
He wouldn't go so far as to switch sides right here and now, but Wakis's words could lodge themselves in Chinpira's heart like a splinter and refuse to come out.
I can't remove that splinter.
Then I need to create an atmosphere where defying me is unthinkable.
I'd gathered enough intelligence to know the Demon race's situation was far from good.
Not just the Demon race — the entire world, really.
There was no more time to waste.
The world wouldn't be destroyed tomorrow, but it was undeniably in far worse shape than I had originally estimated.
Bad enough that Kuro had been forced to build that place.
There was no room for war in a state like this.
Any reasonable person would call for a ceasefire; launching a massive offensive under these conditions would be insane.
But that was only if you thought normally — and the current situation was anything but normal. I had no choice but to act.
And yet, ordinary people trapped in ordinary thinking couldn't grasp that.
I couldn't afford to make them understand, either.
Who knew what kind of chaos would erupt if they learned the truth.
So how do you move people who aren't willing?
You exercise authority that leaves them no choice.
To be blunt, the current Demon King had no charisma.
It was only natural — I'd materialized out of nowhere and seized a seat that had been vacant for ages.
If I'd had more breathing room, maybe I could have earned their trust over time. But that was a luxury I couldn't afford.
No one would trust a person who told them to go die.
Then the answer was simple — flip everything on its head.
Rule through terror.
Defy me and you die.
You must obey.
If I could make them believe that, the rest would follow.
And the Demon King had more than enough power to enforce it.
A reign of terror would inevitably collapse and bring nothing good in the long run — but that was a long-term problem.
In the short term, it was the perfect method to force everyone into line.
My reign as Demon King wouldn't last long anyway, so there was no downside.
I didn't care what those disposable pawns thought of me.
I would choose any means necessary.
That was decided.
I'd been playing around up to now, but from here on, I was going all in.
That meant I had to put my main body — which I'd been holding in reserve — into full operation.
I'd planted my钉 in Chinpira.
The fear that if he defied the Demon King, I would skewer him from behind — that should be firmly implanted.
When I might appear, where I might appear — Chinpira had no way to predict it.
He couldn't possibly evade it.
As long as he never forgot that fear, Chinpira wouldn't dare make any reckless move against the Demon King.
Not even if Wakis's words stirred his heart.
And if Chinpira still chose to defy me after all that, I'd simply skewer him from behind just as I'd promised.
Next.
I teleported to a certain location.
"Who are you?"
A quiet voice.
The speaker showed not even a flicker of agitation at my sudden appearance.
Despite having me at their back, their composure was absolute.
Impressive.
For a member of the Demon race, this one was something else.
"A messenger of the Demon King."
With the speaker's back still turned to me, I delivered those words curtly.
Only then did the person finally turn to face me.
It looked casual, almost offhand, but they'd timed it perfectly — moving in the gap between my breaths.
If I wanted to, I could hold my breath indefinitely, but for any normal person, having someone pivot toward you in sync with your breathing would make it nearly impossible to launch a counterattack on the spur of the moment.
"So. The Demon King has truly descended after all."
They had their own intelligence network, then — and had already gotten wind of the Demon King's existence, something only a fraction of the Demon race knew about.
What I was after was precisely that intelligence network.
"I have an order. Become a double agent."
I addressed First Army Commander
A traitor within the Demon race who secretly maintained ties with the elves.