They sucked each other's blood mid-coitus.
"Easy! Too easy! This is why the Demon Kingdom is looked down upon by the humans! Why the Demon Lord always gets murdered! Overpowering these bastards is really easy! The demi-humans are livestock! It doesn't matter if they fight to the last drop of their blood. We will still win!"
Karina hugged Bludifer from behind.
"Brother. The toys that I played with ran away."
"Toys?"
"The rabbits!"
Bludifer recalled the moon rabbit siblings that served the Demon Lord.
It was a really rare species. Although they possessed powerful magic that could make others hallucinate, they were weak physically.
And they really lived up to their namesake. Rabbits. Creatures that couldn't help but run away in terror at the first opportunity.
"How did their blood taste?"
"Really good, actually! The taste of weak rabbits… Aa, it's too bad they ran away."
"You should've made a follower contract with them, sister. Did you really think that just because they were slaves that they wouldn't be able to run away? Livestock runs away all the time."
Bludifer looked at the Apostles who were bowing their heads in the middle of the pile of bodies. They had been ordered to prostrate themselves.
"The blood of the rebels definitely tastes better, though. And since the rabbits ran away… It couldn't be helped. I released the mongrels and ordered them to chew up our runaways."
By mongrels she meant werewolves.
"Ah, right, did you hear the news?"
"News?"
Bludifer looked at his sister.
"The Devil of Lania! The monster that made Lania, the Holy Kingdom's old capital fall. The one that destroyed the city and filled it with corpses!"
"Aa…"
Bludifer frowned. His face was filled with displeasure.
Even he himself didn't possess the kind of power to make the Holy Kingdom's capital fall single-handedly. No matter how much he struggled he would never win a battle like that. The Holy Kingdom just had too much power.
Yet the Devil of Lania had managed it.
'…I feel offended.'
But he had heard that they were a necromancer. If they had enough demonic power that they could make hundreds or even thousands of Undead corps, then it would make more sense. Also, the capital had been empty at the time. The Holy Kingdom had formed the Golden Cross Army and left for the frontlines, so the city was much weaker than usual.
He wanted to believe that these were the only reasons why the Devil of Lania had succeeded in the end.
Bludifer just couldn't admit that he was inferior to that Devil.
"He also killed the Hero!"
"He's someone who brought down the Holy Kingdom by himself. Why wouldn't he be able to kill one Hero of the Holy Kingdom?"
"But still isn't it fun? I want to drink that monster's blood! How would it taste? What would it be like to cut that neck open and lick up all that blood with the tip of my tongue?"
"But still… don't underestimate that guy. He's dangerous."
"That monster, won't you catch him? Won't you turn him into livestock?"
"Of course I will! That blood is permeated with an enormous demonic power that can make thousands, even tens of thousands of undead. There will be nothing more thrilling than that! But you have to be careful in situations like these. There's the timing to consider."
Bludifer smacked his lips.
Actually, he didn't feel very confident. But he couldn't show that to his sister.
To Karina, this came across as hesitation. She wasn't a very patient person. She was impulsive, and she had a beastly instinct which led to her doing anything for pleasure.
'Fine. If that's how it is, brother, then I will go with the mongrels myself! I will drink that devil's blood like wine! If he looks good I will tame him and use him as livestock! Come to think of it, didn't brother say he wanted the Demon Lord's blood?'
She bit her finger in excitement. Blood soaked out and stimulated her tongue.
'I should offer that to him as a gift!'
***
"A… revolt?"
Lily stiffened on her throne as she heard the news. She was shocked. She bemusedly looked at Karakul as he made his report.
"Is that… true?"
"Yes. It seems like the group of vampires took control of the capital and and forced the Apostles into submission."
Lily didn't know how to respond.
Not only had the Vampire Apostle raised a coup d'état and taken control of the capital, the other apostles had pledged their allegiance to him.
Lily had known that there were some opposing sentiments between them, but she had never imagined that they would go this far.
'Why did they elect me for this position?!'
If she couldn't see something like this coming, then she felt that she was completely unsuitable for it.
Before the coup, they could have just dragged her down from her position if they didn't like her. That was the Apostles' authority. But instead, they had started a bloody war.
'Do they really want my head that much?!'
"… Do the others know about this?"
"It seems like the news has spread all over."
"…I see."
"I will inform you if the situation changes."
"P-please do."
Lily let out a sigh of resignation.
***
Ellin stomped angrily towards her destination. Her eyes were sharp, and her teeth were clenched.
She was not in a good mood.
The Orcs stayed as far away from her as possible so that they wouldn't incur her wrath. They had worked with her for a long time and knew all too well how dangerous bothering her was when she was in a bad mood.
'What happened? That Apprentice Holy Knight is the Devil of Lania? Is this true? Or am I missing something?'
She recalled what happened in the Golden Fief. She was sure at that time that the magic bullet was stuck on the Apprentice Holy Knight's head.
He wasn't even a demon. He was a regular human with a regular human's skull. From that distance, the bullet should have not only pierced through his cranium, but it should have traveled out the other side as well. But instead, he had somehow survived and now he was here. On top of that, he just happened to be the Devil of Lania.
'What happened?!'
Ellin couldn't understand.
She had so many questions.
Was it him who had turned Kelvin that way? Into a golden cross? Why? To leave a warning for the Holy Kingdom? How? For what reason? In search of answers, she came to a stop in front of the tent that Tom was staying in. There were a lot of strange things going on. She even considered the possibility of Tom being a spy for the Holy Kingdom. It wasn't like it was impossible. By disguising himself as such an individual, deep in the Demon Kingdom, he'd be able to steal information with ease.
'But that can't be! Because then he wouldn't have protected Ms. Lily and killed the Hero!'
More than anything else, that human didn't look smart enough to be something like an informant.
"…Aa, I don't know!"
The most efficient way was to just ask him.
But how should she ask? What would be a good thing to ask? She grabbed the tent flap and sighed. She would just ask anything that came to her mind, she decided, before opening the tent.
"…?"
It was really dark inside. The only light was coming from the lantern hanging from the ceiling. In the dim light, a table slowly came into view amidst a white fog. The Orcs were sitting in a circle and in the middle of them, was Tom. Each of them had 5 cards and they were on the lookout for each other. One of the Orcs had a round, thick, long stick called a cigarette—loot they had picked up from the war with the hero's allied forces, lit in his mouth and blew out white smoke.
"… Die."
The Orc put down his cards with an irritated scowl.
"Call."
Another orc threw a chip made of wood into the center. It was a really serious and heavy atmosphere. Ellin's eye-muscles started to twitch uncontrollably as she witnessed the shameless gambling in broad daylight.
"… What are you guys doing now?!"
— Ω —