"Hey, Master?"
The vampire girl's lips trembled as she pointed at the Tenth Army members lined up before us.
"What is this?"
Well, no matter what you say, it's the Tenth Army.
"Am I seeing things? It looks like everyone's Status is over a thousand, though?"
Ah, right. I can't use Appraisal anymore, so I can't check anyone's Status or anything like that.
But still, a thousand? That's weak.
I thought I'd trained them pretty hard, but if that's the case, they'd lose to high-ranking dragons in a one-on-one fight.
"That's the problem, okay? Your standards are the problem!"
"It's useless. Talking common sense to this person is a waste of breath."
At the vampire girl's outburst, Fermina answered with dead-fish eyes.
"How is your Status around 2,500?"
"F-Fufufu..."
Fermina simply let out a dry laugh and ignored the vampire girl's astonishment.
Sensing something, the vampire girl stared at her with an expression of pity.
Fermina hadn't been training since childhood like the vampire girl, so she'd only grown to this level.
Even so, her training period had been longer than a regular soldier's, so she could probably hold her own against a high-ranking dragon.
She probably couldn't match a true dragon, though.
Since the Ninth Army had a whole bunch of those, they were really playing dirty.
"
"I'm fine. For your sake, I'd endure any amount of special training."
He was the only one who — even after the vampire girl's reverse-Hamberger had its charm dispelled — continued following her without hesitation.
When I forcibly dragged the vampire girl into the Tenth Army, Wald tagged along with her.
In addition, I'd added several graduates from the same generation as the vampire girl, and the Tenth Army was now at full capacity.
It wouldn't grow any further before the war.
By the time I'd gotten a few new recruits used to the Tenth Army's environment, preparations for the war would be in full swing.
In other words, I needed to train those recruits before then.
My arms are itching to get to work!
So while I was busy putting the Tenth Army through its paces, an incident occurred at the human race's academy.
Well, "incident" might not be the right word, but... Yamada had acquired a Dominator Skill.
I wouldn't say I wasn't expecting it, but seeing it actually happen was still a surprise.
Of course, I made sure to take full advantage of it.
The system hacking had progressed significantly thanks to this.
Now, if I could deal with
Other than that, the Elves had made no moves so far.
Potimas's clones were up to something sneaky in Yamada's kingdom, but I planned to have Natsume sweep through them later, so no problem there.
At that point, I'd have my little sister work to her heart's content, too.
The Humans, hearing that the Demon race was about to launch a full-scale invasion, had been massing their forces along the border.
The forces of the Divine Word Religion were among them.
It seemed the Pope had chosen the path of battle.
However, the generals I'd seen during the negotiations were nowhere to be found, suggesting they were holding back their truly important forces for a later engagement.
Come to think of it, I realized I'd forgotten to mention that the Hero was supposed to participate in this battle, but the Demon King must have handled it smoothly — the Hero was apparently going to join the fight after all.
Hero
To make sure I finished off the Hero for good, I'd already negotiated with the Demon King to have the Tenth Army's destination be that very fortress.
That went smoothly, of course.
The Tenth Army had fewer personnel than the other armies to begin with, so we'd been treated as a mobile reserve.
As the other armies finalized their invasion preparations, only the army commanders were summoned to the Demon King's castle.
They were apparently holding a final meeting.
Well, calling it a "meeting" was generous — it was really just a final confirmation, basically a report session.
When I entered the conference room, the other army commanders had already gathered.
Argner only spared me a brief glance when I came in and showed no further reaction.
The fact that we had a connection was something not even the Demon King knew, let alone the other commanders.
Mera gave a similar reaction to Argner.
The Oni gave a light bow.
Kuro didn't even spare me a glance.
The remaining commanders sat in silence at their respective seats.
The Second Army's Busty Star was throwing meaningful glances at the other commanders, while the Third Army's idiot giant hovered nervously.
The Fifth Army's warrior wannabe — being a Demon King supremacist, presumably — appeared to be keeping a sharp eye out for any commanders that might prove disadvantageous to the Demon King.
Honestly, whether you did something or not, the Demon King's position wouldn't budge an inch, so it was completely pointless.
The Sixth Army's brat looked composed on the surface, but I could tell he was nervous inside.
The Seventh Army's thug was visibly in a bad mood.
The Demon race's army had way too many characters.
Nobody had said a single word, yet the air buzzed with tension.
Already wanting to bolt, I nonetheless settled into the empty seat beside Kuro.
The gazes of Busty Star and the brat were like needles in my back.
Those here who didn't know much about me were Busty Star, the idiot giant, the warrior wannabe, and the brat — four in total.
In terms of not knowing my true strength, the thug fell into the same category.
I knew there were rumors going around among parts of the Demon King's army that I was some kind of nepotism hire — dead weight that the Demon King had picked up off the street.
And that there were voices questioning my abilities.
Because of that, people like Busty Star and the brat had been directing the grudge they couldn't voice against the Demon King squarely at me.
What a nuisance.
Between the harassment directed at the Tenth Army and other headaches, I'd had to keep the Tenth Army's activities under wraps.
Whether it was a benefit, a byproduct, or just plain luck, rumors had spread that the Tenth Army was a Stealth unit carrying out the Demon King's top-secret missions.
In truth, they certainly looked the part — suspicious through and through.
Keeping our activities hidden from Balt had only unnecessarily boosted the credibility of those rumors.
Also, the thug apparently had me confused with an intelligence-gathering specialist, which didn't help either.
But really, all we'd been doing was training.
As I was mulling over the strange rumors surrounding the Tenth Army, the Demon King made her entrance.
In that instant, the air in the room grew even more taut.
"Let us begin the meeting. Balt."
"Yes, ma'am."
The exchange between the Demon King and Balt marked the start of the meeting.