The audience chamber in the royal castle.
I was going through the pile of reports that had been submitted to me.
(Not a bad turn of events.)
The Demon Lord's Army had begun its invasion of the Empire, attacking from the borders of its territory.
Apparently, the devastation of war was gradually spreading.
I had barely been involved in any of this.
I had left it to the three executive officers of the Demon Lord's Army—Grom, Luciana, and Henry.
They bickered on a daily basis, but at the end of the day, they got along well.
Their coordination was outstanding.
Each knew their own area of expertise, and they were operating effectively.
Recently, Grom had been combining surplus undead troops and turning them into a type of chimera to deploy in the field.
It seemed he was doing his part to bolster the Demon Lord's Army's fighting strength.
A truly welcome development.
Furthermore, some of the elves had joined the Demon Lord's Army.
They were master archers and wielders of spirit magic—exceptionally skilled.
There still seemed to be some distance between them, but they were fighting together cooperatively.
In the World Tree Forest, the other elves were living their lives as they always had.
It had been formally communicated to the surrounding nations that the area was a vassal territory of the Demon Lord's domain.
We refrained from interfering with the elves, making sure they could spend their days freely.
We had no desire to treat the elves like slaves.
Truth be told, all we needed was for them to lend a hand when the time came.
Of course, displaying that kind of attitude would undermine the Demon Lord's majesty.
That was why we had some of the elves join the Demon Lord's Army.
Having an old friend serve as clan chief didn't mean we could favor the entire race.
As I leafed through the bundle of reports, there was a knock at the door.
A voice came from the other side.
"Demon Lord. Human lords have arrived to see you."
"Let them in."
I set the reports aside and gave my answer, and the door opened.
Leading the way was a succubus in civil official's robes, followed by a group of humans dressed in fine attire.
Despite their elegant appearance, they wore expressions of nervous unease.
Their darting, restless gazes turned to clear terror the moment they laid eyes on me.
These were people from towns that had pledged their submission.
Formerly lords of the kingdom.
I had summoned them under some pretext or other.
The lords knelt down with stiff, awkward movements.
Trembling, they began their greetings.
"M-M-My Lord Demon Lord, thank you so much for summoning us today, it is truly..."
"Spare me the pleasantries. It's tedious."
I cut them off curtly.
Crossing my legs on the throne, I cast a glance at the lords.
That single gesture alone was enough to turn their faces deathly pale.
Some looked as though they might faint on the spot.
For them, this must have felt like being one step from death.
A single change in my mood could cost them their lives.
Still, they couldn't afford to ignore my summons either.
There was no telling what punishment might befall them.
They must have suppressed their desire to refuse and made the long journey here.
"Regarding the personnel you were instructed to provide to the Demon Lord's Army—have you prepared your answers?"
"W-Well, you see, the truth is, we haven't been able to recruit as many volunteers as we had hoped, and it's been quite difficult—"
One of the lords faltered.
The others wore similar expressions.
I uncrossed and recrossed my legs, then asked in a cold tone:
"—So I take it you're refusing my request?"
"W-We'll send them right away! P-Please, three days! Just give us three days, I beg you!"
The lords prostrated themselves and hurried out of the audience chamber.
Their footsteps rapidly faded into the distance.
The succubus who had led them in gave a deep bow before withdrawing.
(What a troublesome lot.)
They had probably been hoping for some kind of concession, but I don't entertain such things.
I had threatened them quite thoroughly, so surely this time they would come through with the personnel.
Otherwise, I would have no choice but to annihilate some territory.
"Demon Lord~ I'm coming in~"
The door opened along with a cheerful voice.
It was Luciana who appeared before me.
She came to my side and leaned casually against the throne.
It was the kind of behavior that would probably infuriate Grom, but he wasn't here.
I myself didn't mind Luciana's free-spirited manner, so I let her do as she pleased.
As long as she did her assigned work, that was enough.
"The humans looked terrified—did you do something to them again?"
"I just reiterated our demand for personnel."
When I replied, Luciana pressed a finger to her lips.
She furrowed her brow and gave me a puzzled look.
"Oh, that matter. Why do you want to add humans to the Demon Lord's Army? Isn't our current fighting strength more than enough?"
"If we leave them alone for too long, there's a chance they'll start plotting rebellion. If we siphon off a reasonable amount of their fighting capability, they won't dare do anything rash."
In fact, there had been a lord who was trying to establish secret ties with another country.
I had arranged a private meeting with that individual.
He had sworn his loyalty while on the verge of suffocating from terror, so everything was fine now.
Still, it was only natural that others would emerge who made similarly unsettling moves.
In general, we had not been interfering with the territories that had submitted to us.
They probably had the impression that the Demon Lord was soft.
My punishments had indeed been too lenient.
So I had decided to intervene going forward, even if only irregularly.
Depending on the situation, making an example of someone might also be necessary.
I intended to make them reaffirm their fear of the Demon Lord.
When Luciana heard my thoughts, she wore a wicked grin.
"So you're not going to say it's because you want expendable pawns."
"Humans are useful. Not just as fighting strength—they're valuable for production as well. If we put humans with specialized skills to work, we can raise the standard of living in the Royal Capital too."
I wasn't conscripting humans solely as a countermeasure against rebellion.
With only monsters and undead, inconveniences were bound to arise.
They also served to complement us in those various respects.
I wanted to develop the Royal Capital into a solid stronghold.
"More importantly, how's the war going?"
"The Imperial Army? Things are going swimmingly so far. The Bone Minister has been working awfully hard—I'm practically bored from how well it's going."
The Bone Minister—that had to be Grom.
If he was putting in that kind of effort, it must have been something spectacular.
After all, almost no one could stand up to Grom in individual combat.
If it had been an army composed solely of undead and monsters, they would have struggled to some degree.
The Imperial Army would surely have prepared holy magic-based countermeasures against the undead.
Breaking through those defenses would have been difficult.
Not holding back our forces and having our executives accompany the army had been the right call after all.
"Following the Demon Lord's orders, we've been limiting ourselves to monitoring the towns and villages that accepted our terms of surrender. We keep heading for the Imperial Capital from here, right?"
"Yes, that's right. But don't completely destroy them. Encourage them to cooperate with other nations. The Demon Lord's Army should ease off the invasion at the right points and strip the territories along the way of everything they have."
At my orders, Luciana made a grim face.
She let out a soft sigh.
"That's a tall order... Oh well, fine. I'll make sure to pass that along."
"I'm counting on you."
"Yesss, leave it to me~"
Luciana waved her hand as she sauntered out of the audience chamber.
I settled back into the throne and fell into thought.
The Demon Lord's Army had conquered the kingdom, seized the World Tree Forest, and now had launched an invasion of the Empire.
If this momentum continued, the Empire would crumble as well.
While I didn't intend to bring about its complete destruction, its power should be significantly diminished.
However, a single doubt lingered in my mind.
(—Would the world truly allow this to happen?)
Evil was supposed to be expelled by the power of justice.
That was how the story was supposed to end.
It had always been that way, across every age.
The world had woven its history through such cycles.
But I had defeated the hero of this generation and overcome my destined demise.
It could be said that I had overturned the natural order.
An absurd development, plain and simple.
The world would surely send a new threat my way.
Because my destruction was the "correct" course of events, it would manipulate events to make it so.
It would prepare some being powerful enough to slay the undying Demon Lord.
As things stood, the Demon Lord's Army was conducting a spectacular series of advances.
That in itself was cause for celebration, but I could not afford to become complacent.
Eventually, a factor that would bring about our downfall would appear.
It had been the same when the hero of this generation awakened.
If the world wanted to destroy the Demon Lord, then I would fight against it with everything I had.
I would repel justice as many times as it took and continue striving for my ideal.
I would not shy away from whatever sacrifices that required.