Chapter 8 (11): How NOT to keep a low profile, part 9
A week later, the king spoke with Char's father, Duke Ascham, and... well, it was short, but interesting.
"You wished to see me, your majesty?" (Duke)
"I heard you've met with Ryuu, your daughter's fiancee, a few times. What did you think of her?" (King)
"She's a fine young woman, and well suited to marry my daughter. May I know why you ask?" (Duke)
"Well, she's also engaged to my daughter, the third princess. I just thought you should know that, and one other thing. However, I will ask you something first: Will you, just by knowing an intrinsic quality of hers, change how you think of her and her marriages?" (King)
"She'd still be the same person, so of course I wouldn't. Forgive me, but... Do you even need to ask?" (Duke)
"That intrinsic quality is that Ryuu is actually the Demon Lord. Remember that you, I, and our respective daughters all thought she is a good person, you without knowing that fact. Don't change your mind about her now, as you said you wouldn't. She is still the same person you approved of earlier, after all" (King)
"I... this..." (Duke)
"Will you be opposed to a cooperative relationship between her country and mine?" (King)
"I... no. If everyone around her likes her, despite being the Demon Lord, I can accept it, and will accept an alliance with the demon lands" (Duke)
Three weeks after that, nobles from all over had gathered in the largest of the audience halls, and the king went out onto the stage to give a speech, as Haru and I stood offstage in stuffy, constricting, and overall annoyingly heavy dresses, hair done into astonishingly precarious styles, waiting for our cue.
"Welcome, one and all. To start things off, I'd like to mention something you might not know about, which is that there is going to be a celebration on the day I turn 40 years old, in two months. At that time, the noble ladies of your houses might have a chance to capture the heart of either the second or third prince, so you might want to attend, you know? Now, onto the reason you are here. As you know, my daughter, the third princess Haruveritat, has rejected every suitor she was introduced to. You also might have heard that she has a sixth sense for perceiving a person's true nature, to a degree. In truth, it's magic exclusive to her, which lets her see a person's true nature, almost as if reading their soul. Well, something more than that that you don't know, and I didn't know until a few months ago, is that she prefers females. A year or so ago, I had a meeting with a female adventurer, one whose nature and motives I wasn't too sure about. Therefore, I had the two of them meet, and now, I'm pleased to announce that the two of them will be getting married. No, she's not a nameless nobody, she and the A ranked party she leads are the ones who played a large role in defending the city from the dragons that showed up last month, keeping casualties to an astonishing zero, and for that, as well as another incident that I'll talk about later in this speech, she will be getting promoted to SS rank. Meet Ryuu, seen here next to her fiancee, Haruveritat" (King)
At that, we walked to stand next to him, let the crowd settle down, and then he continued.
"I'm also here to announce something else: I have decided to try to have the human lands move past our animosity with the demon lands, and form peaceful and beneficial alliances between the two countries. Haru has met with their new leader, the replacement for the Demon Lord who died in the recent war between us, and said that she is one of the kindest souls she'd ever met, which is quite the endorsement. If I hadn't already offered Haru's hand in marriage to Ryuu, I'd have offered it to her then and there, considering that the new leader was, at the time, engaged to several other females of all races. By the way, the new leader is only... what was it, an eighth demon? The rest elven and human, for the most part... at least, I think that's right. Anyways, the incident I mentioned earlier was when a demon general, one who was a member of the radical faction in the demon lands, tried to invade our country, against the orders she'd given everyone to work towards a friendly relationship with the human lands. Well, Ryuu went and killed him and his followers, and managed to get proof that it was an unsanctioned attack, namely, Haru was there when the general's men confessed to knowing that it went against the wishes of the new leader of the demon lands. In short, she saved the potential for positive diplomatic interactions. With all of that as Ryuu's qualification, I assume that nobody is opposed to the marriage between her and Haruveritat?" (King)
Nobody uttered any objections, but the same was not true for the alliance between the human and demon lands, when the king asked about that. The clamor was deafening, as all of the barons, earls, marquises, viscounts, and so on competed to have their objections heard first, but when a duke spoke...
"I'd like to say something!" (Duke Ascham)
"Go ahead" (King)
"I'd like to say, to all those complaining about an alliance with the new leader of the demons, that she isn't necessarily a bad person. After all, you know me, I have strong ties to the church and am a strong believer in Lars, thus, I may have a strong prejudice against demons and the Demon Lord, however, I trust my daughter. If Charlotte is wishing to marry the new Demon Lord, I'm willing to give her, and this alliance, a chance" (Duke)
Silence. Utter silence. That's the only way to describe the response to his dropping that Megum- sorry, that explosion spell known as 'Charlotte is wishing to marry the new Demon Lord'... Wait... Damn. We'd been trying not to say 'Demon Lord' but he went and said it. Damn. There goes a good bit of work. When people started whispering about that after half a minute of silence, I, with Ver as an intermediate, said something so only the king (and Ver) could hear. Doing so, we planned our next move, which was something we had to do, considering that plans A, B, and C no longer worked, and we didn't have a plan D already prepared beforehand.
"New... Demon Lord? As in, someone with Diablo's bloodline? Not an elected leader or figurehead? An actual Demon Lord? And she's going to marry a duke's daughter?" (Earl... somethingorother)
"The daughter of the most anti-demon aristocrat in the country, no less?" (Baron... whatshisname)
"And she's a damned pretty girl. I actually envy that Demon Lord somewhat for that" (Some Baron's Son)
"She's got a harem too, from what the king said. You'd be lucky to survive that" (Said Baron)
"Speaking of which!" (King)
Instantly, everyone quieted down to listen to what the king had to say, which was basically what I was telling him to say. Yeah, plan D was more or less just me speaking with his mouth.
"Speaking of the Demon Lord and her harem, would anyone care to guess how I got acquainted with the Demon Lord? No? Well, the fact of the matter is that every one of the original members of Ryuu's party besides Ryuu herself is a member of the Demon Lord's harem, hence the party name. Ryuu has the trust of the Demon Lord and there is and was no risk of her trying to undercut the rest of the party to gain more favor from the Demon Lord, hence one of the reasons as to why she's the leader. Well, recently, Haruveritat joined the party to be with Ryuu, but I did say 'original members' of the party. Since I met with Ryuu's party almost a year ago, I had reason to meet with the Demon Lord herself a few times later on" (King)
"Why does Ryuu have the trust of the Demon Lord?" (Someone, didn't see who)
"Because, while I may not be a demon, I am from the demon lands, and my father did know several of the demon generals at the time, enough that they were willing to teach me to fight, just as they taught the new Demon Lord to fight and use magic. I am the same age and sex as the Demon Lord, and have the same or similar talents with various weaponry, so..." (Ryuu)
"So you became good friends. I understand. What does she look like? Can you tell us?" (A Duke)
"One eye is red, her hair is long enough to hang to her waist, pale skin, large wings, small horns, and..." (Ryuu)
I looked down at my chest as I trailed off, then spoke again, a hint of indignation in my voice.
"... and a significantly larger bust than I have, right now at least. I mean, she's even perfectly content baring it all at almost any time! Like, what the hell? Still, I'll grow... I think... I hope?" (Ryuu)
After that, people asked more about her (me) and I answered as best as I could, without giving away too much. Favorite foods? Dragon steaks, ground horned wolf meat, and, by the way, trying to win her over with food won't work. Weapons used? Mostly magic, a spear, or daggers, though several others as well, should she feel like it or need to use them. How did we meet? I'd rather not answer that question. (after all, I've never met myself) Dozens more questions ensued, and I answered them for half an hour or so.
"Wait, I just realized, you've never said her name. What is it?" (Noble)
"The new Demon Lord's name is Miryuu Maou" (Ryuu)
"Well, that's all the time we have for today. Remember that this was originally supposed to be about Haru and Ryuu getting engaged, not about the new Demon Lord" (King)
"Also, try not to spread the news that there's a new Demon Lord, at least until my party, the Demon Lord's harem, has gotten to be liked by enough people for them to not support another so-called holy war against the Demon Lord. Considering that Lars is the name of the most powerful seat of the demon generals, I doubt that the church is truly serving the will of god, so much as serving their own interests. The founder probably disliked demons, but didn't know much about them" (Ryuu)
With that, everyone left, quietly discussing the large amount of information they'd obtained today. I wonder how long it will take for people to take the rumor seriously?
The next day, I went alone into the adventurer's guild to see if there was an interesting request to take, but before I could walk over to the board, two things happened. First, an idiot mistook me for a child... I know I look like I'm twelve, but still, I also am a walking armory.
"Oh, girlie, you looking to register? I could help you out, if you'd like!" (Idiot)
"No thanks, I'm actually here t-" (Ryuu)
Then, the second thing, namely, the guildmaster, interrupted me.
"Oh, Ryuu! Good, you're here. Give me your card, and we can proceed with your promotion to SS rank!" (GM)
"EH!? WHO'S GETTING SS RANK!?" (Everyone else, including the idiot)
"Coming!" (Ryuu)
Leaving behind the stupefied idiot, I walked to him, handed over my card, and while I waited to get it back, I browsed the A+ rank board, listening to the chatter of everyone else in the guild. One particular conversation stood out from the rest, mostly because it was the closest to me by far.
"Who the fuck is that girl? I haven't seen her before..." (Man A)
"I'm not sure, but I think Ryuu was the name of the leader of that party that killed three dragons a month ago... with only two of their members, including her, bothering to show up!" (Man B)
"Eh? You're kidding, right?" (Man A)
"No, I heard that too. She did have a greater wyvern help out with one of them, but still! Oh, and the party is an all-girl party, with five of the seven having been adventurers for less than a year!" (Woman A)
"I heard that the wyvern was being controlled by a third member, but even so..." (Man C)
"They're all B ranks, right? Well, save for the S ranked leader of the party, that is to say, Ryuu. She's probably the one carrying the entire team, I guess? And she's doing it because the whole party is her harem" (Man B)
"Really? And, also, didn't they steal a kill or two from the military? That's foul play, right?" (Man D, the idiot)
Oh, fine, I'll join in on the conversation, spread some rumors of my own... well, correct some rumors.
"You know, I can actually hear you. To correct your statements, I say this... Three of us, all A ranks, showed up. In our party, we have one other A rank, and three B ranks. We killed three dragons and weakened the fourth, so that the small number of soldiers that were there at the time could hold it off until one of us could finish the job. We gave them the credit, however, despite their attempts to give it all to us. I'm jumping straight from A to SS for it, and I think that Ver and Mae, the two who were there with me, are going to go to S or SS as well. The dragons aren't the only reason for the jump, I killed a demon general posing as a bandit leader against the orders of the new leader of the demon lands. It's thus a reward from both countries. Also, the party name is 'The Demon Lord's Harem' so unless I'm the Demon Lord, it's not my harem" (Ryuu)
"Ryuu! Your card is ready! In addition, I just learned that your party has a designated request, so don't pick one from the board just yet, okay?" (GM)
"Be right there! Huh... Here's hoping it's not like the first one we ever got, back half a year ago, in other words, an assassination request... That was a pain" (Ryuu)
"You... you're an ass-" (Idiot)
"No, dumbass. It was a pain in the ass to deal with the problems that arose when arresting him for trying to have a member of the top brass assassinated, considering that he was a demon general" (Ryuu)
With that, I left the again dumbfounded group behind to collect my card and hear out the request. It was an escort mission, and the one requesting us was Char's father. I decided to wait for the rest of the party to discuss it before we'd accept it, though I was sure that we'd all be fine with taking the job. An hour later, we'd all come to the guild, all of us had ranked up, Ver rising to SS with me, and we accepted our first request as an S ranked party.