“Then, please excuse me.” While we were still flying, Layla opened her mouth wide, unleashing a roar that seemed both similar and different to her usual voice. When they were in their draconic forms, dragons had to strain to make their voices match our language. It would be similar to speaking in a falsetto for us. So when she roared like this, her voice returned to its natural tone.
As she roared, a beam of pure white light shot from her mouth, punching through a section of the forest. When her breath winked out, I could see something slumped under the trees. It was an enormous wolf with its head charred to a crisp.
“That’s some firepower.” I nodded, impressed as I stroked Layla’s neck.
She had great power and impeccable aim. And above all, her ability to detect her targets in the first place was unreal. If it weren’t for the leg up us demons got from our devil pacts, dragons would really be the strongest race, wouldn’t they?
Layla gave a shy giggle over Konectus as my unfiltered appreciation for her strength came through. As if to show off her performance, she circled a few times around the dead gorewolf. And as I saw the smoke rising from the charred beast’s head, I had a flash of inspiration.
That was it! I knew just how to piss off those Izanis bastards!
Hey, Layla...
“Yes?”
After a bit of hesitation, I continued. “Could you do me a favor? Use a full-power breath attack on the whole forest. I want to burn it to the ground,” I said, looking up at the glaring sun overhead. Liliana, seated in the saddle in front of me, turned around to shoot me a look of stunned disbelief.
†††
As we watched the forest before us get set ablaze, Liliana let out pitiful wails. Even as a dog, she still deeply treasured the forest.
After we returned to the castle, she refused to utter a sound for a fair length of time. Liliana kept her distance from Layla at all times, going so far as to hide behind Garunya whenever she could. She would even turn her nose up at my offers of her favorite fruits and sweets. (Though if I left them on a plate for her, she’d sneak back later to eat them by herself.)
“I hoped she would become lucid in an attempt to stop you, but no such luck.” Ante sighed. But I would have felt really bad for her if she were to have woken up to the sight of a burning forest, so honestly I was a little bit relieved.
“I’m sorry, Liliana.” She continued to ignore me, making a show of looking away when I spoke to her. But despite all her anger, when I trained, she was quick to bound over and lick away my wounds. I didn’t know whether to be thankful or sorry.
Speaking of the forest, yeah, we burned it to the ground. We had planned it out so that the wind would carry the fire to help it spread, but even then the fire spread ten times more than we expected. Though the Izanis family somehow found a way to stop it, one of their cities still got roasted. And with that, the prosperous hunting grounds the Izanis family had acquired in their new territory had gone up in smoke. It was probably kinda overkill as an act of revenge for their harassment...but unlike their meddling with the autonomous zone, the fire didn’t take any lives. I obviously couldn’t take credit for the fire, since that would risk being punished by the Demon King, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying every bit of their suffering.
As I made my way to the palace for the next lunch meeting, while wearing my high elf leather Bon Dage outfit, I thought about how to deal with the green toilet stain.
“Well, look who it is.” And the moment I set foot in the dining room, I was greeted by that emerald glare.
“Oh, Emergias. You’re awfully early today.”
Emergias was already seated, adorned in his Bon Dage Style snakeskin. The way he sat with crossed arms and impatiently tapped his foot clearly had the Gutsy Gorger at his side rather annoyed.
“You really did it this time,” he growled.
“What do you mean?” I asked with a quizzical tilt of my head.
“Don’t play dumb! I know it was you who started that fire in the mountains!” The green bastard slammed his hands on the table. “You used that white dragon’s breath to do it. We have a witness,” he declared proudly.
I, of course, was not moved in the slightest. This was exactly how I expected things to play out. After the harassment they had levied at us, it only made sense that they would anticipate some form of retaliation. As such, they surely would’ve connected the dots to my regular flights on Layla over the Izanis territory and the start of the fire. Even if I hadn’t been responsible, they would have likely tried to pin it on me anyway.
“Oh, a witness?” I replied, feigning shock.
“Almost certainly a bluff,” Ante snorted.
Yeah, we had started the fire. But it wasn’t like I had been flying around on Layla having her breathe fire all over the place. We had hidden deep in the brush, even using magic to conceal ourselves before getting started.
“Hunters out in the forest reported seeing a white dragon breathing fire, then saw you flying away from the scene.” Just saying “it was you, wasn’t it?!” wouldn’t have been very convincing, so they had cooked up this story instead.
“If that were true, we’d have quite the problem on our hands. But see, I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about. Is it possible they mistook me for someone else?” I shrugged. Honestly, the word of a witness meant next to nothing. As marquises, we had no shortage of underlings willing to lie for us, and powerful magic to force those weaker to do our bidding.
It was common enough in the Alliance for the rich and powerful to fabricate witnesses out of thin air, but it was even more of a farce when it came to those with magic. That probably wasn’t the only reason, but it certainly must have contributed to why demons settled most disputes with strength of arms.
“You liar—”
“Speaking of serious matters, I heard some interesting reports regarding the Izanis family’s recent activity,” I cut him off while flashing a vicious smile. “Apparently, you have been going on some rather large hunting expeditions. And of all things, you decided to drive a great number of fiends into the Evaloti Autonomous Zone. It’s been quite the thorn in my side, you piece of shit.”
The Gutsy Gorger froze. She then turned slowly toward Emergias, so slowly and awkwardly you could practically hear the gears grinding.
As for greeny, he was thoroughly stunned at my sudden cursing. I was usually so prim and proper toward my brothers and sisters, and that had all been so I could do exactly this. For the record, it was currently just the three of us in the room. Aiogias wasn’t here yet, and Daiagias was away on the front lines.
“Did I miss something?” Stepping into the room was Rubifya with Sleeping Beauty on her back. Rubifya broke out into an amused smile, instantly picking up on the tense atmosphere.
“Oh. Hello, Rubifya. This dumbass decided to pick a fight with me,” I explained, my tone sad and despondent.