Fighting humans is not my responsibility.
Just as it was Chief Adjutant Akamond who led the capture of the Zენტia party, my role is limited to interrogating and training the prisoners taken by him and the soldiers of the Vampire Legion.
But there is one problem with our current policy.
*The more prisoners we kill, the greater the psychological burden placed on Eris becomes.*
Though Eris is a virgin, she is not some utterly innocent fool.
She is glad that she survived, yet at the same time she grieves for those who died here.
Eris knows as well.
Once captured by demons, there is no path other than death.
Indeed, surviving like she did is the stranger outcome.
But just as the prisoners began probing for an opening when we released a few of them, Eris too cannot help developing other thoughts the longer she remains alive.
That she had survived.
The guilt of being the *only one* to survive.
Dallia and Zentia survived by becoming vampires, while every other prisoner was killed. Eris, meanwhile, had survived while remaining human, and felt indebted for it.
That guilt did not arise because she had committed a crime against someone in particular.
That very guilt was a symbol of Eris’s kind-hearted nature as a former virgin—and also the reason I wanted to corrupt Eris into a vampire somehow and keep her as my personal cunt.
Sometimes, surviving alone can be a sin.
The information given to Eris was limited, but depending on how I released it, her guilt would only grow deeper.
*The adventurers are entering this place to rescue Eris.*
Why did adventurers enter the Vampire Legion’s subsidiary dungeon?
Even knowing that Eris’s entire group had already disappeared there, why did they cross through a place resembling a dimensional gate and set foot into the jaws of death?
To begin with, why had the Zentia group been captured?
Before the Zentia group entered, why had an entire party of adventurers been slaughtered by Chief Adjutant Akamond?
*They came in to rescue Eris, and were captured.*
It was all because we had leaked information.
We still had not been able to send Eris’s letter to the County of Albatea, but we had leaked information through a keepsake to Baron Gilbert’s domain that she *might still be alive*.
*If Gilbert’s bastard is still alive, then there is a possibility that Eris Albatea is alive as well.*
Well, it was a sort of little game.
*Even if everyone else is already dead and only Eris survived, the House of Count Albatea must be hoping that Eris, at least, is still alive.*
The House of Baron Gilbert could put the House of Count Albatea in its debt, while also confirming the death of the bastard and making the inheritance matter more certain.
*Baron Gilbert judged it a profitable trade.*
Putting Count Albatea in his debt.
Eliminating another heir in the form of a bastard.
Baron Gilbert continued sending adventurers in pursuit of that truth.
Even if he had to pay compensation whenever the adventurers died.
*Chief Adjutant Akamond is still leaking information, at least.*
It was limited, but information continued to seep out.
“Cackle, cackle. I’ll let only one of you two live.”
After killing eight out of ten adventurers and leaving two alive, he would sit cross-legged atop the corpses, as though savoring his vile little hobby.
“Marvelous. Truly marvelous. You have such a powerful desire to live like that Gilbert fellow. Gilberk? Whatever his name was—the bastard. It’s as though you want to survive in prison badly enough to kill all your comrades!”
“......!!”
“Go. I’ve lost interest. Today, I think I’ll pluck that arrogant bastard’s fingernails and see how long he can endure. Heh heh heh....”
The current prisoners were escaping while carrying information like that.
“That’s the act I’ve been keeping up. Will this be of any help, trainer?”
“It really is an act, isn’t it?”
“......Hwahahaha!”
Every adventurer who came over to our side was either captured and killed or taken prisoner. Before that, however, we would let some adventurers escape and use them to spread information.
*There must be a more direct way to announce that she is alive.*
I had considered that as well.
“Damn it, to think I’d be taken prisoner.... Ah! You’re—!”
“Shh. Be quiet.”
“How did things come to this...!”
“There was no other way if you wanted to survive. More importantly, do as I tell you. Then they’ll lose interest in you and keep you alive to use as a ‘messenger.’”
“A-a messenger...?”
“Otherwise, you die.”
“Yes, yes!”
That was the method by which I would make him perform for Gilbert.
“I-I did as you instructed, trainer.”
“Good. I’ll let you live today.”
“Th-thank you!”
If Gilbert’s bastard were still alive, what if we took a prisoner, had him make contact with the bastard in the dungeon, then released that prisoner after implanting in him the information that *Gilbert’s bastard is alive*?
That man would immediately relay the truth to the House of Baron Gilbert.
And in the process, the fact that he had glimpsed Eris being dragged somewhere as a prisoner would reach Count Albatea as well.
To do that—
*We have no justification for releasing prisoners.*
We could not release them.
*This is a problem I cannot solve on my own. The compensation standards for releasing prisoners are set by the entire Demon King’s Army according to the army’s standards.*
Prisoners were occasionally released after paying compensation.
But the compensation was so exorbitant that only a very small number were ever freed.
In terms of a modern person’s sense of money, perhaps around five billion won?
Naturally, it was an amount that even people with a median income would struggle to earn in their entire lives.
To begin with, as an ordinary salaried worker, I had barely managed to scrape together a few hundred million won after years of saving desperately as though my life depended on it—never mind five billion.
*It’s basically telling them to just die. Or saying that if they somehow borrow money from everyone around them and bring it together, then we’ll let them live.*
If they could not pay a ransom of roughly five billion won, then their fate was simply to die quietly.
*And that’s only for commoners. For nobles, it’s easily more than ten times that.*
Eris’s ransom would probably be around one hundred billion won.
At that point, wasn’t the ransom nothing more than a nominal figure?
Was this merely performative administration, designed to show that the Demon King’s Army was acting humanely toward mankind?
If you asked that—
The answer was yes.
The ransom was, in truth, merely an excuse to destroy the person or family that paid it by demanding the money through the life of a single captive.
If the County of Albatea paid a ransom equivalent to one hundred billion won, Eris could be saved, but the entire count’s house would be shaken to its foundations.
They would even be subjected to constant condemnation for having traded with demons.
Thus, in practice, actual releases were exceedingly rare, even when a ransom technically existed.
But.
No matter how high the ransom might be.
Even if the so-called bail required to secure a release was as precious as actual jewels and gold.
The important thing was that it made it possible to attempt a “negotiation” with humans under such a pretext.
*I have to use Baron Gilbert’s domain to draw out Count Albatea.*
The fruit had ripened to a certain point.
All that remained was to devise a suitable plan and put it into action.
“Secretary.”
“Yes, Trainer.”
“There’s something I want to ask.”
“Please, speak.”
And so, to secure a new corruption candidate, I decided to act somewhat more proactively.
“Can we gobble up Baron Gilbert’s domain?”
“......Pardon?”
“......No, that metaphor was inappropriate.”
Seeing Lilis’s confusion, I quickly changed my wording.
“I was wondering whether we could subjugate the House of Baron Gilbert through military force.”
* * *
“No.”
Chief Adjutant Akamond stated it categorically.
“If demons of the Demon King’s Army could freely wield their power in human territory, humanity would have fallen into the Demon King’s hands long ago.”
If you were wondering why Chief Adjutant Akamond was answering me so directly, it was because he had come to the training room himself to see me.
“You know very well why that is, don’t you?”
“Because it is the domain of the Goddess. That is all I know.”
“Correct. To be more precise, the problem lies with the ‘Goddess statues’ installed throughout human territories, including Baron Gilbert’s castle. Demons cannot properly exert their power within the barriers formed by the influence of those statues.”
That was the sort of world this was.
“Even when the Demon King conquers human kingdoms, destroying those Goddess statues is his highest priority. Otherwise, he must fight while accepting the enormous losses caused by their weakening influence.”
“As for Baron Gilbert’s domain....”
“The physical distance is too great. After teleporting there, our magical power would be severely depleted. And even if we crossed over through a subsidiary dungeon, the Goddess statue’s power reaches inside the dungeon as well.”
Chief Adjutant Akamond shrugged.
“The reason I’m telling you all these secrets is because you belong to the Vampire Legion. You know what will happen if you betray us, don’t you?”
“Of course. I know very well.”
These were top-secret matters of the Demon King’s Army, information I could never have obtained during my days as an adventurer.
“Even high-ranking demons are weakened within the Goddess statue’s domain. Roughly speaking...to one-tenth of their original strength? Perhaps even more.”
“.......”
“You will keep this secret without fail.”
“Yes.”
Chief Adjutant Akamond acknowledged me enough to tell me such things.
“In any case, the Vampire Legion alone cannot challenge the House of Baron Gilbert right now.”
“.......”
“Shall I put it bluntly? Here, I can casually toy with a dozen or more superior knights using one hand. But if I leave the dungeon and stand before Baron Gilbert’s castle, I would only barely defeat a single superior knight—perhaps with odds of sixty to forty.”
“In every respect...the Goddess statue is the problem.”
“Well, if we gathered all our forces and fought, we could destroy the baron’s house. But the injuries we would suffer would be too severe. The losses would be too great.”
It was a matter of efficiency.
“Why? Do you have a good way to destroy the Goddess statue?”
“Nothing like that. I was merely suggesting that we create a trap in Baron Gilbert’s domain—one capable of sending soldiers into the dungeon more reliably than before.”
I pointed downward.
“The prisoner unit you sent previously, the Kite group, boasted considerable strength even among adventurers.”
“So they did.”
“Yes. In effect, they were the second-strongest force in Baron Gilbert’s domain.”
Using the information from Zentia, I organized the backgrounds of those who had been captured.
“Even while it is believed that all of them were killed, I want to create a pretext that will make Baron Gilbert’s domain send its soldiers here with all its might.”
“What sort of pretext?”
“Capture just one prisoner, and leave him alive.”
I took out a quill pen.
“Write a letter concerning the ‘release of prisoners’ onto his body and send him back.”
“...Whose letter?”
“Jake Gilbert’s—and Eris Albatea’s.”
“......Eris is the woman you train, but wasn’t that fellow named Jake already dead?”
“They still don’t know whether he’s alive or dead, do they?”
“......You intend to sell them a corpse?”
“Chief Adjutant.”
I made a show of wiping my face with one hand.
“Until it has been observed and confirmed, they have no way of knowing whether Gilbert’s bastard is alive or dead. That is precisely why we can sell him.”
“.......”
“And to confirm that—”
“More adventurers. More women.”
The proportion of women, of virgins, was too low?
“Instead of sending in five or ten, we make it around a hundred.”
We simply had to increase the absolute number.
“That way, we can secure more virgins, can’t we?”
Akamond’s ears sprang upright.
“More virgins?”
“Yes.”
“...And what is it you hope to accomplish by doing that?”
“There are several things, but ultimately they all lead to one conclusion.”
I rubbed the tips of my fingers together.
“Securing more virgins who will be easy to train and turn into vampires.”
For now, three.