"That's…!"
Silvia blinked and grabbed my hand. I sighed and took the handkerchief off.
"It's a magic crest, I believe."
"Yes…no, it's not just any magic crest!"
"You recognize it?" I asked. Kelvin snorted.
"Are you kidding?! Of course we do!"
"Huh?" I stared at him. "What is it then?"
It was Silvia who answered. "That is the magic crest of the Demonic Emperor. It's the unmistakable symbol of his authority and power. Whoever bears this crest has the right to succeed as the new Demonic Emperor!"
"Say what?"
While I was still trying to digest the new piece of information, both Silvia and Kelvin dropped to their knees and lowered their heads.
"Our respects to your majesty!"
"Praise to your majesty!"
"Hey! Get up!" I frantically waved for the both of them to rise to their feet, and they complied without hesitation. Even so, they kept their heads bowed. "I'm sorry, but even if you suddenly tell me all this, I still can't quite grasp what's going on."
"It's simple, your majesty. You're the new Demonic Emperor. That magic crest is the living proof of it."
"No, no, that's not what I meant." Even without that simple explanation from Silvia, I understood the current situation. "I mean, I'm still in disbelief at what's going on. And please stop addressing me like that. It makes my skin crawl."
"But your majesty…"
"That's an order. Just call me Klein." I sighed and rubbed my forehead. The damned crest was still glowing a crimson red, and I wished it would shut down. Pushing my glasses up my nose, I took a deep breath. "Also, don't tell anyone about this just yet. I don't want to draw too much attention."
"But your…I mean, Klein," Silvia protested.
"Think about it," I told her as I wrapped the handkerchief back around my hand. The glow continued, and I had to stick it in my pocket of my black cloak to conceal the crest. That worked better, but I could still see the soft red glow through the dark fabric. "What's going to happen if people find out that I'm the new Demonic Emperor?"
"They will swear their fealty to you!" Kelvin said instantly. I sighed again. I really envied his simple outlook in life.
"Maybe many will, but there will definitely be some people who will be after my life. This crest is basically a gigantic bull's eye, you know? Any commander worth their salt will try to assassinate me."
"That's true…" Silvia acknowledged.
"But…nobody can defy the crest!" Kelvin blurted out. "That's the Demonic Emperor's crest! His authority! Proof that the dark gods have chosen you! Those who defy your will, they will be branded as traitors!"
"Exactly. The traitors are the ones I'm worried about. Think about it. Let's say there are high-ranking demon nobles or generals who are eying the position of Demonic Emperor, who have the ambition to succeed as the next emperor. What do you think they will do if they find out I have the crest?"
"Swear their loyalty…"
"No, you dolt!" I snapped, throwing my hands up. "They will assassinate me! I'm a threat to their ambitions! The only way for them to make their claim on the throne is if I – the prime successor – am dead! They'll scheme against me! You think they'll just bow down and pledge their loyalty to me, someone who was a former human and came out of no fucking where?"
"I mean, you proved your strength by defeating the lord of vampires and inheriting his abilities," Kelvin protested.
"I hate to say this, but his ma…Klein is correct." Silvia cleared her throat. "Not all the surviving divine generals will agree to this. And there are several powerful demon nobles who intend to stake their claim on the throne. They will view Klein as a threat and move to eliminate him, especially now when he doesn't have much backing."
"Aren't you going to back him, ma'am?" Kelvin asked innocently. Silvia groaned and covered her face.
"Of course I will. But I only command one legion. And I can't say the same for the other divine generals. And that's not counting the other forces the nobles might privately have at their disposal. In order for Klein to survive, he'll need more than just one legion."
"In any event, I'm grateful for your support," I told Silvia. She smiled.
"Not at all." She took a deep breath and turned to Kelvin. "So that's what we will do. Until we can get the support we need, we'll help Klein keep this a secret. Try not to leak this out or we'll be unnecessarily putting our new emperor in danger."
"Understood." Kelvin didn't seem happy about that, but he realized the necessity of it all. I then cleared my throat.
"Anyway, back on topic. As an emperor, I will need to prove myself. And I will first start with conquering Bravia. Kelvin, you still with me on the scouting mission?"
The kobold brightened up when I shifted his focus. "You got it, your ma…" he trailed off when he caught my glare, and quickly amended himself with a cough. "Klein. My Grey Hunters won't let you down."
"I know they won't. Let's go."
Kelvin led a pack of kobolds through the cave, and thanks to the bats living within the cavern, I was able to communicate with them to make things a lot easier. Combined with the efforts of the kobolds, we were able to map the interior out successfully.
"You killed the goblins here?" Kelvin asked when they came across the pile of fresh corpses that Stella and I had left in our wake. I nodded.
"Stella and I wiped them out when they attacked us."
"Pity. They might have been useful."
Somehow I doubted it. Goblins might be cunning, but they were individually weak and extremely untrustworthy. They cared only for their own interests.
We emerged from the cave and I pointed toward the hill that served as a landmark to the trail toward the city.
"The duke in charge of this province is complacent," I explained with a shrug. "So he doesn't post sentries on the borders to watch the mountains or this route. Well, to be fair, the convoys that come along this route are from the Havan Kingdom…in other words, friendlies, so he has no reason to expect an attack from this direction."
"Hmm…" Kelvin pondered, and then he nodded. At his paw signals, his scout squad moved stealthily, closing in on the hill. Known as the Grey Hunters, they were an elite unit that excelled at both reconnaissance and combat.
They were also fiercely independent and aggressive, which explained how Kelvin ended up butting heads with his previous commander and thrown into the dungeon for insubordination. Nevertheless, that independence came into great use here, with them blending into the surroundings and scouting the area without needing much instruction from their pack leader.
Once they had a good grasp of the lay of the land, they returned to the cave. I didn't even know they were done until Kelvin tapped me on my shoulder. At that point, I was perched on the hill and staring down at the city.
"Let's go," he growled. I nodded and turned away.
The journey back to the Demonic Empire took less time than I thought it would. Before I knew it, we were back at the tent, where Silvia was having a conversation with Stella.
"…I won't deny that we demons have committed atrocities. Even under my watch, my men have plundered, pillaged, raped and killed. I will not pretend that we demons are saints."
"That's right! You are evil!" Stella snarled, but Silvia remained calm.
"Perhaps so. But aren't you humans the same?"
"What…?"
"Can you honestly tell me that you haven't committed the same atrocities? Committing genocide at Berin, where you herded thousands of kobolds into concentration camps and slaughtered them all. Or right now…even though your kingdom has effectively won the war, you continue to invade our territory. Fort Crusche is such an example. You plundered the ore and armaments there for your own armies, and massacred the demons stationed there. And that's not to mention bandits belonging to your species taking advantage of the chaos and launching raids on villages in your kingdom and raping your women, loyal to no one but their own greed and lust."
"That's…"
"In any event, your opinions matter little. You will be held here as a…guest, until this operation is over." There was an iciness to Silvia's tone. "You have no say in the matter."
"The General sure put that human bitch in her place." Kelvin chuckled, and then stopped outside the entrance to the command tent and cleared his throat. "Kelvin reporting, ma'am!"
"Oh, you're back already? Come in."
We obliged, and Kelvin began providing a map that his scouting team had put together. With that, Silvia began outlining her strategy. Meanwhile, Stella was taken away somewhere.
As it turned out, the plan itself was simple enough. Silvia's demonic legion would travel through the cave, gather in the valley, and then strike the city. I had emphasized that the civilians should not be touched, and Silvia agreed. She had no interest in the bloodshed of humans. We would concentrate the assault on Duke Bradley's mansion instead. Our goal was to annihilate the knight regiment there.
With that achieved, we would establish the Bravia province as a principality of the Demonic Empire. The population would be allowed to stay and become citizens of the Empire, or leave safely.
"We'll then establish a garrison here on this hill, to fight off any reinforcements from the human kingdom," Silvia finished. I nodded. It was a sound plan.
"All right, let's do it!"
The demons started work almost immediately. Silvia pulled some strings and called in a contingent of dwarves from a nearby mine. The combat engineers of the demon legion, they set off to construct a ramp to the ridge, constructing a road.
"The goal is to build an underground highway," the leader of the dwarves, Squat, told me. He grinned as he rested a gadget on his shoulder – something he called a mining laser. "We'll be paving the road with concrete and stringing lumens along the way to light up. Hopefully we can also widen the passageway so that an entire army can easily pass through it at once. Oh, and the supply wagon too."
"Sounds great to me," I said with fake enthusiasm, even though I didn't know why he was telling me all this. Apparently, to train me for my future role as the Demonic Emperor, Silvia had assigned me to liaison with the dwarves. I wasn't much of a diplomat, but fortunately the dwarves were friendly and easy to get along with.
Using the construction and forging magic that they were so famous for, the dwarves spent the next few days constructing an underground highway through the cave that Stella and I had found, while more supplies and troops massed around the other side of the mountain. Thanks to the sheer numbers, work could proceed quickly, with orcs handling the menial labor under the direction of dwarfish supervisors. Not only that, the elves were occasionally called in to cast earth magic to help move boulders, to support portions of the cave so that the dwarves could reinforce them with concrete.
The whole process took five days to complete. I helped out wherever I could, sweating alongside the orcs as I lifted boulders, pushed barrows of concrete or debris around, or using the sophisticated tools that the dwarves had developed.
While that was happening, the last piece of the puzzle came.
"Klein? You called for me?"
On the fourth day, right before the completion of the underground highway, an old friend showed up. I grinned when I saw Oswald the orc, and set down the wheelbarrow. Wiping the perspiration from my face, I waved.
"Yeah. Sorry about this. I know you don't like fighting, but I want you here all the same. Don't worry, I won't post you to the frontlines. It's more for something I wish to do after the battle is over."
"Sure." Oswald looked confused. "What is it?"
"Well, your village is still lacking in male orcs, right?"
"Yeah?" Oswald remained confused. My grin grew wider.
"I'll be helping you solve that issue soon enough."