"All right, everyone's here! Then let's get started right away—"
Henry's voice rang out from the distance.
I scanned the surroundings from the balcony.
Henry was in the training grounds.
He stood before a formation of monsters, explaining something.
He used hand gestures as he spoke, occasionally mimicking the motion of drawing a bow.
It appeared he was giving a lecture on archery training.
A few days ago, Henry had volunteered to serve as an instructor.
He was an exceptional archer.
If they received proper guidance, my subordinates could sharpen their skills as well.
Ranged attacks were critical on the battlefield.
Archery often gave the impression of being inferior to magic, but in reality, that was far from the truth.
It required no chanting, and with practice, anyone could wield it.
From launch to impact, it was silent.
Unlike magic, it was difficult to detect unless spotted by the eye.
A coordinated volley from multiple archers could deliver area-of-effect attacks as well.
In certain situations, it could prove more effective than mere suppression fire.
Enchanting arrows with magic could also greatly increase their destructive power.
All in all, it was a versatile weapon.
The Demon King's army included many who were unable to use magic, so increasing the number of archers represented a significant boost to our military strength.
Henry and I could provide support fire, but relying on that indefinitely would inevitably lead to trouble down the road.
Having the troops become proficient with bows now was the optimal long-term solution.
As I listened to Henry's lecture, someone knocked on my door.
"Demon King, may I come in?"
"Sure, come in."
"Excuse me."
The one who entered was a succubus.
Not Luciana—one of her direct subordinates.
The succubus placed a bundle of documents on my desk and promptly withdrew.
I left the balcony and went to review the documents.
They contained reports on the state of governance across various territories, points of improvement in daily life within the Royal Capital, and needed facilities.
The reports were thorough and well-organized.
The templates for each type of document were something Luciana had been in charge of preparing.
Her training of the staff was clearly paying off.
Recently, more and more people had been requesting positions within the castle.
There were surprisingly many who were not suited for combat or who preferred clerical work.
With the Demon King's army growing more diverse by the day, they were a welcome presence.
Conquest alone would not sustain us forever.
We needed people who could handle the fine-tuning on the ground.
On a side note, the management of the ever-present miasma had also been handled thoroughly.
Currently, it was being stored in the underground vaults beneath the castle.
This was a measure to prevent health damage among the troops.
The concentration had reached considerable levels, so we would need to come up with an alternative storage solution soon.
I sat on the sofa and began going through the documents that had been brought in.
This time of day was particularly idle anyway.
It would be better to get the administrative work done first.
(The Demon King's army has really stabilized quite a bit...)
Nearly fifty days had passed since Henry joined our ranks.
Domestic conquest was proceeding smoothly.
We had already seized control of over eighty percent of the territory.
The Demon King's army had been leveraging teleportation magic to launch repeated assaults across multiple fronts.
There had been no significant resistance.
Even without my personal involvement, the monsters carried out overwhelming devastation on their own.
The fallen corpses rose as undead and were added to our ranks as new subordinates.
Henry, too, had proven invaluable.
His standout contribution was, without question, his trademark sniping from extreme range with his bow.
He pierced through enemy defensive magic and picked off commanders one after another—an incredibly reassuring sight for allies.
After throwing the enemy forces into complete disarray, Henry led the monsters forward into close-quarters combat.
This was to fully unleash his extraordinary martial prowess.
No one could match his raw violence, and enemy soldiers were cut down without mercy.
The monsters who served on the front lines always regarded him with looks of deep respect.
He might even be more revered than I was.
The documents also mentioned several small nations that had been destroyed.
The territories left unclaimed had been seized by neighboring countries, it seemed.
They absorbed the land and operated it as their own.
Some nations had even occupied mining regions and were already turning a profit.
The whole sequence of events was far too neatly arranged.
These were moves that could only have been made by someone who knew how this scenario would unfold.
I had assumed the neighboring powers were using these small nations as sacrifices to wear down the Demon King's army, but that turned out to be incorrect.
Their true objective had been to throw the small nations against us, let us destroy them, and then swoop in to seize the territory and resources.
It was truly absurd.
The surrounding nations were more optimistic than I had imagined.
They were utterly underestimating the new Demon King.
They saw the whole affair as nothing more than a distant fire on the far bank.
Worse still, they had gone so far as to use the small nations as traps to lure us in.
Thanks to intelligence obtained from the leadership of those small nations, I had already identified the powers pulling the strings behind the scenes.
Once I finished conquering the domestic territory, they would be the very first targets of my invasion.
I wanted to shatter this absurd attitude of theirs.
For those carefree fools who still felt no sense of crisis, I needed to plant the seeds of ultimate despair.
They regarded the threat of a new Demon King as something temporary.
Their arrogance was plain to see—born from the belief that humanity had triumphed ten years ago.
Or perhaps they actually possessed some strategy capable of countering me?
During my ten-year absence, there was no evidence of any significant advancement in the world's technology.
At least, not in any general sense.
It was not inconceivable, however, that certain nations had been quietly preparing specialized defenses in anticipation of the Demon King's resurrection.
As an undead being, weaknesses inevitably followed me.
I was close to immortal, but I was not an omniscient, omnipotent being of absolute invincibility.
If I grew complacent, there was a genuine risk of being killed.
That was something that absolutely could not be allowed to happen.
I was going to become the foundation of world peace.
To that end, I never neglected my training to master my powers.
Since my magic had been operating on a completely different level from my previous life, I was capable of wielding techniques that transcended human understanding.
Through trial and error, I continued expanding the range of what I could do each day.
Just as I was nearing the end of my document review, I heard loud, hurried footsteps from outside the room.
Someone was approaching fast.
I knew immediately who it was.
"…………"
I organized the documents and set them aside.
At the same moment, the door burst open.
"Demon King! This is terrible!"
It was Grom.
As was his way, he dropped to his knees before me, trembling as he began to speak.
"I-I have a report…"
"What is it?"
I asked while thinking to myself.
For Grom to be this flustered, the situation must be truly serious.
He was always a bit dramatic, but this was qualitatively different from his usual behavior.
Whatever it was, it was certainly bad news for the Demon King's army.
Had there been any recent cause for concern that I could recall?
Nothing came to mind.
Then this had to be an unexpected development.
"A-about that… well, you see…"
Grom hesitated for some reason.
He started to say something, then shook his head and cut himself off.
It was rare for him to stumble over his words like this.
My guess at what he might be about to say grew even vaguer.
Despite a rising sense of curiosity, I refrained from rushing him.
Pressing him now would only make him shrink further.
It was better to wait until he could speak calmly.
After a brief internal struggle, he delivered his report in a voice barely above a whisper.
"The Hero—the Hero with the Sacred Sword—is resisting our invasion and fighting against us…"