"-- Hey, long time no see, Nell.


　I was waiting in front of the cave, and when I saw a figure appear from the forest beyond, I lightly raised one hand and said these words to him.

I'm not going to ask you how you knew I was here, but ...... it's annoying that you came through this scary forest and were relieved to see your face," he said.

　I can't believe you said that.

"Well, nice try, dude. You should have come three days earlier so we could have had a better meal at the barbecue.

...... No, no, it's fine. I mean, it's a barbecue.

　The figure that appeared - the brave girl, Nell, with a dumbfounded look on her face, poured out the words.

So, what do you do? You must be tired, do you want to go to the hot springs first?

...... As much as I'd like to, I don't really have much time. I'll leave it for another time.

　With a slightly grim expression, the brave man said that.

...... Okay. Well, let's go inside anyway.

　At her urging, I walk into the cave.

　The cold air coolly envelops my body.

　I walk through it, my footsteps echoing, until I reach a massive looking door.

　I didn't hesitate to open the door and walked in, and the one beyond that was - behind the demon king's castle - an example inn with a hot spring.

...... Eh, ah, what? Beyond that door, you should be able to see the castle in front of you. ......

I changed where you were going because it was inconvenient. Oh, take your shoes off.

"Oh, um, yeah, okay.

　I opened the door of the inn with a rattle, and accompanied by a brave man who looked somewhat unsure of himself, I took him to a room I had passed through before.

　I took out two cushions piled up at the edge of the room, sat down on one of them and scratched my knee, and started to talk to the brave man who sat down on the cushions in front of me.

I'm going to be able to tell you a story.


　　　* * *


It seems like it was a stalling (・・・・). All the incidents that were happening in the city, such as the magic sword thugs that attacked us, were all intended to draw the lord's attention to the city, and the undead fiasco was also a scheme to keep Alfilo's soldiers glued to the city. However, since my brother solved the problem early, I was able to send a horse to the capital to report on the situation there, and it was only for a lucky thing that I was able to learn about the current situation in the capital.

"......, so

　On the way, I sip the hot tea Leila brought and then I counter with a sip of it.

　She came here today to tell you about the commotion we encountered when we went into town earlier.
　Well, I promised her that before. When the map suddenly reported an intruder, and the intruder was Nell, I thought, "Oh, you're here to tell us.


　And the information that he came to tell us is that a political change (・・・・・) has occurred in the country (・・・・・・・・・).


　It seems that the d*mned prince is in dire straits and has finally committed treason.

　The first time, he recruited volunteers and destroyed the troops he dispatched, and the second time, he dispatched a brave man of his own accord, and then the brave man is alive and dead unknown... Thus, he's living normally, but it seems that while he's been with us for a while, he's alive and dead. Even after Nell reported back to the church, it seems that the prince is still unknown if he is alive or dead because the church is using it as an excuse to oppress him. It's a scary world--it's a scary world--and it seems that the prince, completely discredited for causing such a big problem, has taken a gamble and is now out of luck.

　Well, there are only two things that can happen to a man with no time to spare. You can either take a gamble hoping for an upset or you can blow yourself up in a big way.

　This time, the prick chose the former of the two options.

　The zombie commotion in the city was to keep the old lord's eyes only on the city, as a result of interrogating the all-black man I caught.

　To stop the opposition or forces that would be on the king's side beforehand, and at the same time, cause a political upheaval in the capital to swiftly subdue them before others could do anything about it.

　It is said that other opposition cities didn't have such a blatant stall, but that city is located in a remote area, and the quality of adventurers and soldiers here seems to be higher than in other areas due to its location bordering the forest of the magical world, and if the king's side is rushed to support them. In order to keep the troops in the city, they wanted to get rid of the zombie scare, the magic sword scare, and other similar incidents to keep the troops in the city.

　The strategy worked, and now the king is alive and dead, and the capital is completely controlled by the prince's men, leaving the rest of the city untouchable.

　That's pretty clever thinking. I don't like the fact that the king's life and death are still unknown.

　If he's alive, they can raise an army to rescue the king, and if he's dead, the anti-prince faction can raise an army to avenge the king or not be a legitimate government, but if he's dead or alive, they can't make that decision and can't do anything about it.

　That might not be a lot of time to earn, but if you set up a system in the meantime, the anti-prince faction will be unable to do anything about it.

　--What matters to me here is if the prince ends up on the throne.

　He's been messing with us all this time. If that a**h*le prince gets control of his army, there's a good chance he'll send his real army to us. In that case, it's a fine line between me and the dungeon's ability to defeat him on our own, and maybe I'll need help from Leffi.

　That's the last thing I want.

　Well, there's always the possibility that he'll hurt you twice and won't mess with you again, but you should expect the worst.
　There's no reason for a guy to stop messing with you just because you didn't think of it.

　Tsk. ...... d*mn it. Was I taking it too easy?

　I had already thought about what to do with the d*mn prince (・・・・), but it's not that hard to do (・・・・・・・・).

　But it's not so difficult, the idea was to assassinate him brain-dead and kill him.

　For that purpose, I was going to use a golem called "the doll of flesh and blood" from the DP catalog - well, in a word, it's a remote-controlled robot.
　By connecting me to the magic path, this golem can transfer my consciousness to the inanimate monster, the golem, and control it, while my body is in a safe place to attack targets.
　Although the remote control will be cut off if the user is not within a hundred-meter radius, this golem can be exchanged for DPs as a custom-made skill, just like other golems, and can be made into an assassin's version, which is useful in situations like this one. I thought.

　Well, I think it would be quicker if I got into the castle instead of doing all this mess, but you never know what kind of protection a castle in the capital of a country has.

　It's not that I'm a suicidal person, and on the other hand, if a golem was found and destroyed, it wouldn't cause such a fatal damage to me as my little DP would be blown away.

　I've been hunting for demons with Lil to replace this golem with DP and to learn how the flame of sin is feeling. .......

...... What are you guys going to do about the prince?

The church is afraid of what will happen if the prince comes to power. The prince is a hardliner, and if he comes to power, he will put more pressure on the church. So, they will launch a rescue mission for the king in the near future.

"You don't know if the king is alive or dead, do you?

"Yeah. But the rescue mission.

　...... Okay, so it's going to be a hard sell.

　If it works, ...... well, is that better for me?

Okay, okay. Then I'll help you with the rescue mission (・・・・・・・).

...... It would be very reassuring to have your brother on your side, but ......



　With a dubious look on his face, he said, "What do you mean? A brave man who asks me, "What if the prince is in power?

If the prince comes to power, I'll be in trouble too. I don't want him to take over the army and send in a large force. We want the current king, who has never tried to advance into the forest, to remain in power. Even if the king is dead, don't the anti-prince faction originally oppose the expedition to the magical forest? That's more convenient for me.

　Well, that's one reason, of course, but what I'm thinking deep down is another.

　If I assassinate the prince, of course there is the question of who had the hand in the assassination, and if they find out through some means unknown to me that I am the culprit of the assassination, even if the current king is reinstated or an anti-prince faction comes to power, there is a strong possibility that we will still be at odds with each other.

　Of course. A prince was killed.

　That would leave, as I said before, the possibility of a large force being sent in, and not complete peace.

　Rather than that, it will certainly be a plus for me in the future if you lend a hand to these anti-princes, ostensibly to make it appear that they overthrew the prince.

You're not going to be trusted if you say you're going to cooperate with the demon king's old man at ......, though. I don't mean to say this, but I'm well aware that you're the strangest person among the demon kings,

　Oh, you said it.

"I'm not going to tell you who I am. It's more like your squire you met on the road. Let's wear masks.

"No, I think they would normally find out, but there are some crystals that are ...... appraised and so on. ......

"It's okay, okay. I got an idea for that too. I'll take care of it.

　I smiled at the brave man with a slightly uneasy expression on his face.