521-519 Shitenno gathering
My name is Mamoru.
I am Mamoru, the Devourer, one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon King's Army.
He is the heir to the Holy Sword of Devouring Zweibrau.
Well, he's my son-in-law.
The former Four Heavenly Kings of Devouring tried to kick out a competitor in a political battle, and as a result, he was punished for it and lost his position.
I, his trusted confidant, took over the position of the Four Heavenly Kings.
Originally, I was a commoner with no qualifications to be the Four Heavenly Kings, but I became a son-in-law by marrying Lady Lavilian's daughter, and joined the family lineage of the Devouring Sacred Sword.
As a vassal of Lady Lavilian, she has respected her son as a princess and has protected him behind her back.
Her loyalty has earned her the nickname "Mamoru from the Shadow".
Due to Lady Lavilian's mistake, the family line was in danger of being destroyed for a time, but I managed to avoid the rupture of the family line by succeeding her.
However, even if it was for this reason, I had no idea that I was going to take the princess whom I had served for so many years as my wife.
The Princess seems satisfied with that, but even now I still speak to her in honorific language.
I'm my own wife.
The Princess is angry with me every day for that.
I'm my own husband.
This is how the work of the Four Heavenly Kings goes on today.
Partly because of my predecessor's mistake, I'm fourth in the pecking order among the Four Heavenly Kings.
The lowest.
It's hard for me.
Nevertheless, I can't abandon my mission for the sake of my former teacher, Lavilian-sama, who has taken care of me, and for the sake of Hime, who has served and protected me for so long and is now my beloved wife, and I can't abandon my mission.
I will carry out the duties of the Four Heavenly Kings with all my might!
* * * *.
And today, we had a meeting of the Four Heavenly Kings for the first time in a while.
The current Four Heavenly Kings discuss together, but they don't do it very often now that the war with the Human Kingdom is over.
"The Four Heavenly Kings, Mamoru the Devourer, has just arrived!
"Hm.
You're late.
And the ones who greeted me unconcernedly were Aeshma, also of the Four Heavenly Kings 'Delusion' and Leviasa, also of 'Grudge'.
.............
In terms of the order in which they became the Four Heavenly Kings, they must have become the Four Heavenly Kings after me, right?
What about respect for your seniors or something!
........but there's no point in squabbling with the Four Heavenly Kings here, so I'll keep my mouth shut.
It's not because I'm afraid of being told to do something by the two demon queens, Astares and Grashara, who are also their predecessors and supporters!
The three of us, the three of us, are all newcomer Four Heavenly Kings who were recently replaced, but two of our predecessors became Demon Queens after marrying into the Demon King, and the other one was disqualified.
There is too much of a difference in the power behind them.
And the last remaining one of the Four Heavenly Kings........?
* * * *.
Hey, hey, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...!
The one who entered the room saying, "I am Belphegamilia-sama, the leader of the Four Heavenly Kings, 'Fallen'.
He was the only one left over from the previous Four Heavenly Kings, hence the implication that he was the leader of the current Four Heavenly Kings.
No, rather than a connotation, he's now been given the rank of Demon Army Commander by the Demon King, and is officially the highest ranking member of the Demon King's Army.
Right now, this person is the one who can do whatever he wants in the Demon King's Army.
The only person who can give this person an opinion is the Demon King as the Lord of the Demon Kingdom.
That's how powerful Belfegamilia-sama is now, but the way he uses his power...!
''Belfegamilia-sama, could you stop being late every time? I have plans for this one as well.
No, I'm trying to be quick, though, right? What do you call it? I can't get out of the warmth of the futon, I mean...!
'You're sleeping until the last minute before the meeting starts!
He only tries to use his power to be lazy like this.
No, I think he's been like this since the last generation....
That's why he survived the political change without anyone paying attention to him.
The reason why the Demon Army Commander's was entrusted to this kind of foolishness was because the Demon King's Army became useless at the end of the war, and will be shrinking from now on.
There are those who say that it's just a decoration to symbolize the period of decline.
But that's a mistake.
It is a colossal and foolish mistake.
Happy are those who can insult Master Belfegamilia without knowing his true identity.
On the other hand, if you're like me, you'll have to see through that person's hidden strongest and have to deal with them while taking that into account....
My stomach hurts.........?
'You discussed the case while I was late, didn't you? Tell me how much you've put together?
This guy.
I can't help but think that he was late on purpose for this to happen.
In the first place, everything is decided just by what you, the commander of the Demon Army, have to say.
He doesn't do that, he lets us young people argue to our heart's content.
By doing so, we'll be able to scrutinize matters more precisely, and at the same time, train the juniors in their thinking and judgment.
........Isn't that what the late comers are aiming for?
Just tell me what you've done. It's too much work to think about.
...Am I thinking too much?
...So the biggest topic of discussion today is still related to the disarmament project.
Well, that's true. That's the biggest problem that the Demon King's Army needs to address at the moment.
As expected, Belphegamilia-sama understands that.
Until now, the Demon King's Army has always strived to expand itself to be strong and large.
This is so that they can win the war against their long-time nemesis, the human nation.
However, that nemesis was destroyed by the living Devil King Zedan, ending the long war between humans and demons.
The Demon King's Army no longer had a clear enemy.
That's why the Demon King's Army has to whittle away its own overgrown body.
We need to rebuild it into a smart organization that is commensurate with peace.
But now we are beginning to see the negative effects of disarmament.
The evils of disarmament, you know...
Even if the war with the Human Nation is over, the Demon King's Army will not be completely irrelevant.
This is because there are still countless enemies that threaten the human race in this world.
The representative of these enemies are monsters.
The miasma that arises from the congealed miasma in dungeons attacks living creatures with a ferocious nature.
If the miasma is left unchecked, the damage to the good demon people will never stop. That's why it must be exterminated.
That's why we, the Demon King's Army, have been in charge of this mission so far. ''This is one of the most important missions the Demon King's Army has been tasked with, along with pushing the tribal army back from the border.
Let's review that part, shall we?
Shit!
No, calm down, calm down.
With the ongoing disarmament since the end of the war, the number of men in the Demon King's Army has been greatly reduced. Although the burden on the treasury has been lightened, it's still extremely difficult to capture dungeons with a limited number of soldiers.
Monsters are born out of dungeons.
It would be most efficient to get inside and exterminate them all together before they overflowed from the dungeon.
That's why the Demon King's guards regularly entered the dungeon to defeat the monsters, but due to the recent downsizing of the army, the number of soldiers has been decreasing and there are not enough of them to go around.
There have been some reports of small groups of people being surrounded by monsters and nearly getting wiped out. If the Demon King's army's ability to clear dungeons continues to decline and the monsters that were shot out of the sky damage the settlements, it will be the end of the world...!
Yeah, I've been getting in touch with Lukif Fokale about it.
Lukif Fokale?
The Prime Minister of the Demon Kingdom who is in charge of the internal affairs of the Demon Kingdom?
Earlier I said that the only person who can interfere with the Demon Lord who has become the commander of the Demon Army is the Demon King, but strictly speaking, that's a mistake.
There's another one. Belphegamilia-sama, the commander of the Demon Army, who supports both the army and the government, and Lucif Fokale, the Prime Minister of the Demon Kingdom.
Only these two titans, with the exception of the Demon King, can keep each other in check.
''According to Mr. Fokare, the hardships in the field that have been removed from the manpower have reached their limits. He says that the military should take immediate action. But I wonder how the Heavenly Prime Minister can listen to the voices on the ground?
Before that, isn't it a side note tearing, such as being interrupted by the internal affairs officer to talk about what the military is doing?
The reason why we allow such a monopoly is because disarmament is not proceeding efficiently.
It must be improved immediately.
In this situation, we have no choice but to take that measure that we have been considering for some time.
That's what it's all about, isn't it?
Belphegamilia-sama, you look unwilling.
But under the circumstances, there's only one thing we can do.
If we don't have enough people to exterminate the monsters, we'll replenish the staff from the civilian population.
Civilian monster exterminators and dungeon searchers....
Let's bring adventurers into the Demon Kingdom as well!