A Demon Lord’s Tale: Dungeons, Monster Girls, and Heartwarming Bliss

Rogard Empire Royal Guards

A few days after Xena-san had checked up on my wives.

“Well then, I’m off to work.” (Yuki)

“Hmm, good luck with your work. …I feel like you’re becoming more of a normal husband since we can now say things like [Go do your best at work].”

“Oh, what? You make it sound like I’m not a normal husband. I have been a normal and good husband to you from the start.”

“It seems that you have a strange delusion regarding work. Now, put your hand on your heart and think about it yourself, have you been really working properly until now?”

“That’s all right. I’ve already given it a lot of thought and I am proud to say that I am doing my best at work from the start.”

“I see. I’m afraid this is a lost cause.”

After exchanging such jokes, I left the house while the other members of my family said goodbye to me.

◇◇◇

My current destination was the Rogard Empire.

I had been visiting the empire at least once a week for the past six months, and this was the first time since I became Emperor that I have actually been doing my job as an Emperor.

To be fair, I was mostly just nodding my head as the person in charge while everyone else was doing all the work.

“Listen, humans. You may have your own opinions about me. I won’t condemn you regarding that, we did try to kill each other. I can understand that you won’t feel good about suddenly being friendly with me.”

Today, I visited the training grounds attached to the Imperial Castle of the Rogard Empire.

Looking at me were my subordinates, who were nominally unit commanders… Aside from them, there were also soldiers that belonged to a different organization.

The organization was the First Order of Knights of Rogard Empire.

They were supposed to represent the Royal Guard of this country.

The leader of this Knight Order was appointed by the emperors from generation to generation, and I, being the current emperor, have now become their Supreme Commander. Though it was only recently that I learned of this.

The guards, who escorted us to the dwarves’ village via this country before, also belonged to this country’s Royal Guard Order, but they were part of the Second Order, a Royal Guard Corps organized after the Great War. However, the First Order of the Royal Guard had been established even before I became an emperor.

Considering this upcoming event, the Second Order was also supposed to be the ones who would be selected to compete in the event, while the First Order would continue to go about their usual business.

–That plan, however, changed, and I instead selected the First Order to represent the Rogard Empire in the event.

I have been visiting the First Order a lot lately, but before all this happened, I was rarely around, and on times that I was in the Empire, I would always do some work that was assigned only for me to deal with, giving me a lot of time spent working with the Second Order because on the occasional time I would show up, the Second Order would always do their best to organize the guards as quickly as they could, and after I left, they would simply return to their work as guards or train. As expected of Royal Guards, they were quite diligent.

…I was a little bit sorry about that, so I didn’t let them participate this time to give them some leeway.

Since the First Order was also Royal Guards, they were among the most elite in the country, and their levels were actually quite high that I couldn’t utilize them as a force when dealing with normal tasks… And since the Rogard Empire had now become a country where important figures from various countries gathered regularly, leading to a more busy schedule for the Second Order that usually dealt with security duties.

So I decided to talk to the First Order, and now I was in the middle of convincing them.

“But regardless, it cannot be denied that I am now the emperor of this country. The previous emperor, Shendra, entrusted me with this task, and I agreed to take over. As such, I will do what I have to do.”

That was my promise to him.

Now that I have included the whole of Rogard Empire as part of my dungeon, its Dungeon Map was now working with the same setting as Demon Forest, making it automatically open to notify me when an entity of a certain level of threat entered.

However, if I used the Demon Forest as the standard for invaders and monsters, there would be a high possibility that lesser threats would not be detected around this area, so I adjusted the settings a little to match the level of threats around here.

I have already eliminated every single monster in the country that was strong enough to require my presence to deal with it, so now I only have to eliminate the few occasional intruders coming from the outside.

…Sometimes, though, a group of humans would gather and cause enough of a hostile reaction to make my map notify me about them.

Like with criminal groups, extremist groups, etc.

I usually stayed out of it and just handed the information to the state, telling them “Here’s the enemy”, and let them deal with it.

Sorry, but I didn’t have the time to deal with minor incidents like that.

Nevertheless, the number of such groups has been decreasing rapidly, showing that both the local authorities and the judiciary have been functioning well since the current system was established.

Adding to that, behind the scenes, there were organizations that were also actively culling the threats down. The butler of the Imperial Castle also belonged to one of such organizations.

Well, that was the current status of the empire, anyway I have to focus on dealing with the First Order for now.

“Instead of looking down on the other races… Show the world how humans, who are inferior in terms of physical power and magic, can defeat other races and win. The opportunity to do so will come soon.”

They have been silent for a while now.

However, I could see passion in their eyes as they listened to my words.

I could even feel the temperature of the place rise.

“So, let’s do this, you guys. Even if it’s just for fun, treat it as a serious contest for the prestige of our country. Let the name of this country become known all over the world!”

[Ooooh!!!]

When I finished my speech, the Royal Guards made the air in the training hall tremble as they all roared in enthusiasm.