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“Ellie, can you give me an update on the Demonkin Nation damage assessment and the assistance we’re providing them with?” I requested. We were in my executive office back in the Abyss by this point.
“Certainly, Your Blessedness,” Ellie said before launching into her report. “Everyone affected by Mr. C has been cured of their lunacy by spells designed to cure status ailments. The fairy maids also carried out other relief efforts, which helped to bring the situation under control. Evacuees in the capital are being given food through a distribution program, and no problems have been reported. However...”
Her expression darkened. “We are experiencing moderate delays in locating, retrieving, and healing human slaves. I formally handed down the Absolute Autonomy of Humans decree using Mr. Voros’s proxy letter as my mandate, but word of the decree has yet to spread around the nation. The fairy maids have encountered resistance when attempting to retrieve slaves, and most of the slaves we have been able to emancipate were malnourished, with many bearing scars or even grave wounds. We have expended plenty of manpower to heal these unfortunate cases, but...” Ellie paused. “I deeply regret this outcome, Blessed Lord.”
“The elves, the dark elves, and the beastfolk were pretty horrible to their slaves, so I guess we can just add the demons to the list too, huh?” I said bitterly.
The details on how the humans were being abused truly sickened me. And not only were the demons treating my race cruelly, but they refused to let my brethren go when the time came. There were even slaves who had been so badly mistreated, they refused to leave their masters when we invited them to come with us, likely due to trauma or some deep-seated fear. In most cases, we just forcibly relieved the owners of the slaves, then relocated the slaves to Tower City where they’d live freely so they could recover from their trauma.
I flashed Ellie a reassuring smile. “You don’t need to apologize for anything. But we do need to speed up the rescue of the slaves, so we’ll just send some more fairy maids to help out. If you need to, you can use whatever cards you want from our stockpile.”
“I’m greatly humbled by your magnanimity, Blessed Lord,” Ellie said, bowing.
Voros’s insane choices had been part of the reason I’d felt the need to send Ellie and the fairy maids to take care of things in the Demonkin Nation, although I did also want to make sure that every human in the land could be saved as soon as possible. I wanted to avoid a situation arising where I wouldn’t be able to save the life of a severely injured human, and all because I’d cut corners. I’d even allowed the full use of the SSSR Advanced Anomaly Cancellation gacha cards to minimize the resistance against safeguarding humans. Thanks to my Unlimited Gacha, we would replace those cards soon enough, and it’d be worth it if we were able to save lives as a result.
I leaned back in my chair and collected my thoughts. “Well, it seems like there are no major problems with how we’re dealing with the demonkin. Ellie, continue with the mission as planned.”
“Of course, Blessed Lord Light,” she replied, executing an elegant curtsy while holding her witch’s hat to stop it from flying off. She didn’t let it show, but it was obvious she was excited to be given a task of such importance. I smiled again before moving on to our next topic of discussion.
“We are now finally able to exact my revenge on Diablo,” I stated. “The fake C was an annoying distraction, but thanks to that whole mess, we were able to gain something interesting out of it.”
The interesting thing I was talking about was, of course, Voros’s handwritten proxy letter. We’d originally had it written to quickly restore calm to the Demonkin Nation capital and to free the slaves, but I’d quickly realized I could use the letter to really make Diablo’s life miserable.
“We’ve found out from our intelligence operatives up on the surface that Diablo is obsessed with status,” I said. “The same is true about his falling-out with his brother. So if we use this proxy letter, we can boot him out of the aristocracy and make him super depressed. We can even replace Diablo as the head of his fiefdom with his brother. That letter will sure come in handy for all of that kind of stuff besides its primary goal of freeing slaves.”
“You’re so clever to find so many uses from one single concession, Blessed Lord,” said Ellie. “You really are a master among master strategists!”
“Thanks, Ellie,” I said with a smile. “But his misery won’t be anything like the pain I suffered on my horrible first day in the Abyss. He was willing to assassinate me to get to his current rank, so we’ll rob him of his rank through a formal process. That should give him a small taste of the utter despair he put me through.”
“Yes, that’s a splendid plan,” Ellie agreed.
I started to think of extra ways we could bully Diablo. I still don’t think it’s enough just stripping Diablo of his rank and handing his land to either his brother or his nephew, I thought. Ellie could arrange for all of that to happen just by showing the proxy letter in her hand to the right people, but that still wouldn’t be enough for the likes of Diablo.
Didn’t Diablo used to talk about the reason he became an adventurer despite being a former aristocrat? I thought, thinking back to days long past. Diablo claimed he had become an adventurer in order to see the world and widen his horizons. He’d also said that he couldn’t return to his estate because the bodyguards, servants, and maids so doted on him, they would have pressured him to stay home and remain a scion.
“Honestly, everyone in my household is so protective of little old me,” Diablo had said back then. He’d also said he never visited home because it was too much of a chore.
“The maids would constantly be making advances, my parents were smothering me with their love, and my dear elder brother would spoil me so rotten, I simply got tired of it all,” he’d remarked.
Back then, after hearing Diablo talk about his life, I thought that was just how aristocrats lived, I mused. But now I know he was just deluding us all to protect his pride. Still, thanks to Diablo’s thoughtless prattle, I now had a pretty good idea at which buttons to press to send him over the edge. My thinking was that I could put Diablo through a similar test to the one I’d hit Sasha with: If any of Diablo’s underlings, servants, or maids were willing to put their lives on the line for Diablo, I would spare his life.
“Diablo used to say everybody loved him to bits, so that suggests all the people serving him will be quite willing to risk their lives to save him,” I reasoned. “If even one person is willing to put Diablo’s life above theirs, I’ll let him go. But that will require Diablo to know someone willing to sacrifice their life for him.”
“Splendid, Blessed Lord Light. A delightfully clever stratagem,” Ellie gushed. “If anyone is loyal to him, they’d be perfectly fine with protecting their lord from any cruel circumstances that might befall them. But that will only be the case if he truly has the capacity to be a leader of people who genuinely follow him.”
Ellie and I shared deeply satisfied grins, and it was then we decided to put our revenge plan against Diablo into motion.