7th Demon Prince Jilbagias’ Chronicle of Demon Kingdom Toppling

６３． Sincerity of The Dark Dragon

Good day, Jilbagias who is representing the decapitated head of Faravugi that was preserved with freezing is here.

Sorry, Faravugi. Sorry for doing something that looks like disgracing your corpse. But, please go along with this since I’ll make sure that your death is going to stir up the Demon Kingdom.

I sit on the sofa in the center of the room, Faravugi’s head on my left, shiny scale mail on my right, waiting for the patriarch of the Dark Dragon.

After waiting for a while, the patriarch of the dark dragon asked permission to enter the room.

The said patriarch was a tall man wearing a loose, black colored garment. His skin, hair, and eyes were black, only his blue, vertical pupils exuded ice-like cold. Despite smiling like a gentleman, his smile was obviously a fake smile.

In order to differentiate him from a human, there was a pair of horns growing from the sides of his head.

――According to Verossa.

『If they feel like it, the dragons can also hide their horns to look completely like that of a human. The reason they left the horns out is to differentiate them from the human.』

Despite telling me so with a rather nonchalant look on his face, I felt some sort of complicated emotion mixed in Verossa’s voice. Whether it was the demon race, the devil, or the dragon, all races with strong magical power tend to 『Have Horn』.

「Good day, Your Highness Jilbagias. It’s a pleasure to meet you.」

The other party gave a mixed-up greeting. He might’ve already been familiar to speak in his human form, it was obvious from the less, creaking-like sounds he produced when he spoke which made his speech far easier to understand than the other dragon.

「I’m the patriarch of the dark dragon, and also double as the patriarch of the dragon race in the demon king castle, Orphen.」

「7th Demon Prince, Jilbagias.」

I replied pompously, putting on haughty air around me.

「Let’s skip the chit-chat. For the patriarch himself to come straight to offer his apology is nothing short but admirable.」

「Yeah, this incident is undoubtedly caused by the failure of us from the dragon race.」

Said Orphen haughtily as he nodded in agreement, he didn’t seem to care about my pompous attitude.

「I offer my deepest apologies as the representative of my race for the trouble that was caused to Your Highness. My deepest apologies.」

Said Orphen as he bowed in silence.

「Uhm, yeah…」

I was left disappointed in how easily he swallowed his pride and bowed his head at me.

「And that hateful face! No doubt about it, it really is the patriarch of the white dragon, Faravugi. What a befitting end for the traitor who disgraced the dragon race by working together with the monkey of the alliance. Dear me, I’ve never expected that he managed to escape from the pursuit and hid in the demon kingdom…」

… Monkey of the alliance you say? Shall I kill you now?.

Wait a minute, don’t get pissed off by his pace. Let’s strike back with satire.

「According to Faravugi, he’s struck with the curse of 【Withering Wings】 which prevents him from flying. Is the dragon who guarded the demon king’s castle so stupid to the point that they missed such a big lizard crawling on the ground?」

Or so I wished, the satire turned into straight provocation.

「Ooh, never expected that the curse was working on Faravugi. I thought the curse had failed due to his magic resistance.」

Said Orphen with an unnaturally dumbfounded face.

「Dear me, that curse has a delayed effect, it’ll work slowly to make the target have more and more difficulties in flying. Many white dragons who fell victim to that curse fell straight to the ground and turned into mince meat. That’s why we have a hard time to confirm the identity of the corpse. Well, it doesn’t change the fact that we overlooked Faravugi’s survival. I will make sure to punish the one in charge of inspection back then.」

Dammit, this guy… Was tough.

The dragon had already abandoned their stupidly high pride eh? I could see that he was prepared to sip the muddy water or lick my shoes to achieve his goal.

But―― He was the type that definitely wouldn’t forget this disgrace and humiliation.

No matter how hard he tried to act pompously with a gentle smile on his face, he failed to hide the cold, piercing gaze in his eyes.

「Is that armor made from Faravugi’s scale? I feel great power dwelled within, is this made by the dwarves?」

Even when he looked at the armor made from the corpse of his race, he acted like it wasn’t a big deal.

「That’s right.」

「If he is still useful to Your Highness even after his death, it can at least keep a bit of honor for the dragon race…」

Orphen was grinning ear to ear when he looked at me again. He literally bared his fangs at me.

「Today, I also bring a token of apology for Your Highness.」

「Hou.」

I’m seriously running out of ideas about how to make this guy angry. Trying to make the relationship with this guy deteriorate was tough―― Or else, could it be that the relationship between the dragon race and demon race had already deteriorated to the point that it couldn’t get any worse than this?

Still, I’m curious about his so-called token of apology.

「I come up with this idea after I heard that Your Highness has taken a liking to a high elf pet.」

Orphen then turned around and spoke with a jarred voice toward the door.

「――If that’s the case, I get this feeling that you’re going to like our present.」

The door opened up.

And then―― A girl entered the room.

White, almost transparent skin. Shiny silver-coloured hair. Golden, bright eyes like the sun. A beautiful face that still had a trace of innocence. But, under those eyes was an undisguisable dark color, an obvious trace of lack of sleep, which coupled with her skinny figure, was a clear trace of malnutrition. Pair of horns grew from the sides of her head to the back.

The girl who timidly entered the room then―― Sobbed for a moment before she forced her face to show a smile after she saw Faravugi’s severed head and the scalemail.

「N-Nice to meet you… Your Highness. I’m Faravugi’s daughter, Lyla…」

She spoke with an almost inaudible voice, trying her best to hold back her tears.

「My apologies… For all the trouble… That was caused by my father…」

… Dammit, I remember it now.

『Faravugi. What makes you so angry? do you really hate the Demon King?』

『――THAT’S OBVIOUS DAMMIT! THAT BAS*TARD IS IN CAHOOT WITH THOSE DARK DRAGONS TO KIDNAP MY DAUGHTER AND MURDERED MY WIFE!』

He did say that his wife got murdered but――

His daughter was 『Kidnapped』――

Upon recalling that matter, I spontaneously looked at Faravugi’s head and the scale mail.

S-Stop, you’re mistaken… I just…

… ANTE, I’LL LEAVE MY POWER IN YOUR CARE!!

『Rest assured. I’m doing that.』

The Demon God heaved a short sigh.

『――You’ve got a lot of power in just a single moment.』

I had no idea whether she was heaving a sigh or laughing, or a mix of the two.

「Your Highness. I’m presenting to you proof of our sincerity, Faravugi’s daughter Lyla. 」

Said Orphen as he grabbed Lyla’s shoulders and then pushed her toward me.

「Since she’s the daughter of a sinner, the dragon race doesn’t have to care for her fate. The matter with Faravugi has angered Your Highness right? So why don’t you use his daughter to vent your anger?」

Said Orphen with an undisguised sadistic smile on his face.

「Whether you enslave her, torture her, or kill her, she has nothing to do with us…」

It was an extremely vicious smile, so vicious that it couldn’t get any worse than that.

「If Your Highness feels like it, she can also become your errand girl.」

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Enter, One of the heroines, maybe the main heroine: