Side: Yuki
After discussing the magic swords and deciding on our future course of action, we finally had some time to relax for the first time in a while.
Lately, we'd been busy with research and preparations against the Jilva Empire.
"By the way, what happened with the demon race issue? I haven't received any reports about major problems, but I also haven't heard any updates lately."
I brought it up while having tea with my wives in the banquet hall.
By the way, Eris was resting in her room since her morning sickness had gotten particularly severe.
"Ah, that's because I intentionally kept it from you. I didn't want to give the New Continent expedition team any unnecessary worries."
"Hm? The way you say that makes it sound like there were problems."
"No, not really. Thanks to you taking the initiative to wipe out the command structure of the retreating Roumel invasion army, the monsters scattered. The invading demons all surrendered when they heard the Demon King's castle had fallen. There was barely any fighting."
"'Barely' means there was some, right?"
"Of course. The ones who overthrew Liliana knew they wouldn't get off easy if they just surrendered normally, so they resisted desperately. Well, they were captured easily enough, though."
"Well, I did leave Dullahans and Liches there."
"They weren't ordinary Dullahans and Liches. Normally, a single one would qualify as a disaster-level threat."
"Even so, they're still ranked lower than Slakichi-san or Steve."
"Ah, right. Come to think of it, Steve really was that much of a monster too. He feels so much like a servant now that I forget he's that strong."
So that's how Seraria sees Steve, huh.
Hang in there, Steve.
* * *
"Achoo!"
"Captain, did you catch a cold?"
"...No, I just have a feeling the Boss or Seraria-neesan is plotting something weird again."
"Do your best, Captain."
* * *
Anyway, it seems the demon territory is starting to calm down.
Elju had been assigned as an observer and assistant to Liliana. The kings of various nations had agreed to the arrangement, and the truth about the demons was gradually spreading as elite representatives returned to their homelands and reported what had happened.
Many nations were reacting favorably after learning the truth behind the war.
There were certainly still people who hated demons, but as a race, demons generally possessed combat abilities far above average. Because of that, many military officials were actively recommending policies to recruit demons and incorporate them into their countries.
People really were practical.
Though, to be fair, we'd deliberately aimed for that outcome.
Given that I was one of the reasons Liliana had been overthrown in the first place, I supposed it was only fair.
"Come to think of it, what happened to the Hero Taiki? I heard up to the point where Kiyu and Coville helped him overthrow the kings, but I haven't heard a single thing since then."
Riel spoke as if she had just remembered.
"I'll explain that one," I said. "After all, he's from the same world as me."
"After the king was removed, Taiki-kun became the central figure handling the country's administration. Ideally, he'd like to run things more like Weed, but the people want him to remain in charge since he's the one who saved the nation."
"Well, that's only natural, isn't it?" Riel said. "He's a Hero, and he's accomplished quite a lot."
"Exactly. After doing this much, it would be too irresponsible to just do whatever he wants and leave. So for now, Taiki-kun is acting as regent and working on rebuilding the country. The former royal family of Rankus apparently had nothing but pride, so their territories were quite devastated. There are many untouched areas, so providing full support there is his current job."
"Haaah... Handling things out in the open really is incredibly tough, isn't it?"
Riel seems to be slowly understanding the reason why I prefer to act secretly behind the scenes.
"It's just as Riel says." Seraria agreed. "If you move out in the open during a major national crisis like Hero Taiki did, you basically become stuck and unable to move freely for anything else. That's why Yuki never tried to handle past problems purely by himself or with Weed alone. Creating Weed itself was done with the ultimate goal of leaving politics to the people, just like in Yuki's hometown. Because of that, even I, the Queen of Weed, am not actually that busy. From a pure military standpoint, the invasion of the Demon King could have been handled by Weed alone anyway."
"So basically, you make use of whatever resources are available while keeping yourself free to move?" Riel asked.
"That's about right," I answered. "The same applies on the New Continent. If we start building nations ourselves, it'll just become a burden. The ideal outcome would be getting either the Jilva Empire, the demi-humans, or both to agree to a ceasefire so we can move freely."
"Ah, that way we won't have to look after them ourselves."
"Exactly. And now that we've learned more about the magic swords, we finally have a clearer direction. We'll continue investigating mana depletion, of course, but looking into how the previous Dungeon Master tried to deal with it might prove valuable as well."
Luna's management is sloppy, but maintaining the world is basically just her hobby. If she turns her back on us, that's the end.
Saying anything about it would be completely out of line and on a totally different scale.
For us it's a matter of life and death, but for Luna, it's probably on the level of seeing a wilted flower on the roadside and thinking "it'd be nice if it bloomed prettier."
A normal person would just ignore a withered flower by the road. Even if they did something, it'd be easier to transplant it to better soil than to try improving the soil itself. For a being who calls herself a high-ranking god like Luna, the environment and people of a planet might be even less significant than that roadside flower.
The fact that we can exchange information like this at all is already a stroke of luck.
"I see. Someone who was investigating mana depletion on this continent before us would definitely have gathered way more information than we have. So we're going to look for that, right? Yeah, that makes sense."
"Well, I don't think this will instantly give us the root cause, but it should definitely boost the amount of information we have to work with."
"That's true. We just have to judge for ourselves whether that information is right or wrong, and they might have been looking at things from a completely different perspective than us."
Just as Seraria says, if the previous Dungeon Master investigated the depletion from a different viewpoint, there's a high chance they held information we could never reach on our own.
In Luna's initial report, we only heard that he had died, so we didn't pay much attention. But since this is more like a handover, the previous Dungeon Master's information is extremely important.
Though Luna herself barely knows anything about it.
"Besides, it looks like even Luna didn't know that the previous Dungeon Master was taking action against the mana depletion, so it can't be helped, right?"
"I think that possibility is quite high. But there's also the chance he was just making them for no particular reason."
As Seraria said, it's possible he simply made the magic swords.
He was a local, so it's not impossible he did it purely to strengthen military power.
But I believe the magic swords are the result of the previous master taking some kind of action against the mana depletion.
There's absolutely no point in using extremely rare Dungeon Cores to create something so inefficient—a weapon that can't generate magic for the dungeon, and can only recover magic by directly slashing and taking lives with the blade.
In any case, investigating the previous master should yield various pieces of information, whether it's related to the depletion or not.
We can always change direction after collecting that information.
Right now, we have no choice but to research steadily, so having a clear goal is very welcome.
"Since our only other option is to just sit back and research, having a concrete objective isn't a bad thing at all."
"That's true. But in that case, if we leave the research team under Zargis here, you'll be the one leading the field operations, right?"
"Obviously. Zargis is a demon, so sending him to the wrong place could cause all sorts of problems. I'm a Doppelganger who can perfectly transform my body, so I look and function exactly like a human. I have no choice but to go myself."
When I said that, Seraria thought for a moment before speaking.
"...I suppose the easiest place to start would be the Jilva Empire?"
"Yeah. The demi-humans are too weak as a faction. If we want to gather information over a wide area, targeting the Jilva Empire is our best bet."
"Hm? Yuki-san, have you decided to take down the Jilva Empire?"
"No, no, that's not it, Riel. I'm just saying that if we're only gathering information, the Jilva Empire is the best nearby target."
"Ah, right~ Besides, technically even that place where the demi-humans are staying is supposed to be Jilva Empire territory. At this rate, it would be great if we could just go and negotiate with the Jilva Empire directly."
...Direct negotiation?
"Ah, I'm just joking, okay?" Riel hurriedly waved her hands. "If we did that, they'd discover us. They might even send a massive extermination force after the demi-humans."
"You were already thinking about how to send the sisters back to the Jilva Empire, weren't you?" Seraria asked.
"Yeah. In a way, this might be the perfect opportunity to quietly influence the Jilva Empire from the shadows."
We have the track record of repelling the magic sword users twice and completely destroying their armies.
Using that as leverage should allow us to talk to some extent.
I was actually getting tired of constantly intercepting them, so I was thinking that if the Empire still wanted to pick a fight, we might as well crush them.
In that case, we just need to make them stop viewing us as enemies.
Of course, that includes the demi-humans under our protection as well.
Well, it'll be a one-sided demand, so they'll probably try to pull something, but there's no way the dungeon will fall. I've already told the team to retreat immediately if the defenses ever drop down to the 6th defensive line.
There's no way anything will happen to us during the direct negotiations, but even in a worst-case scenario, I'm a Doppelganger, so I can always just go back for a revenge visit later.
This will be a great chance to directly threaten the King of Jilva.
And conveniently enough, we have two people who can help us meet the King.
"In that case, how should we have the sisters move for our benefit?"
"It would be easier if it doesn't turn into a fight. It'd be best if they side with us and help threaten the king."
"That would be ideal. We could also just take the capital and turn the king into a puppet, but that would be messy in many ways. Having them cooperate willingly would be much better."
Seraria and I smiled at each other.
"Uwaa... you two are scary... Poor Olive and Mist... There's nothing I can do to help them."
