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Chapter 128: The Lurking Scheme

~Somewhere in the Imperial Capital Ibrand~

A man and a woman were sitting across a desk in the dark.

The common features between the both of them were dark skin, bright red eyes, and bat-like wings protruding from their backs.

「At last… I didn’t think that the war with the Arto Kingdom would end with much less damage than expected, but if the current plan goes well, the human race will finally be over.」

The woman tilted her wine glass and smiled bewitchingly.

The man’s expression, however, was the exact opposite.

「Astrue… Will it really go well this time? Isn’t there a possibility that Zoa might appear again like with Granpals?」

「No worries, Brakyls. Zoa’s appearance was confirmed on the Magic Continent after that, and there’s no way he could travel between continents that many times.」

The demon “Zoa”, whom Kinu and Shinku fought during the ranking battle, fought the demon Grampals, who was in contact with Bride. The powerful magic that Kinu sensed in the arena and the reaction of the [Danger Perception] skill were the aftermath of the magic that Zoa unleashed at that time.

However, the two demonfolk called “Astrue” and “Brakyls” were only informed of Zoa’s appearance using telepathy skill by Grampals right before he was erased by Zoa. From that point onwards, they were unable to obtain accurate information and were only able to speculate on the series of events that had occurred in Arto Kingdom based on the situation report and the results of the current situation.

「I hope that’s the case. It would be impossible even for us to win against a guy like Zoa.」

His grim expression further wrinkled as if he had chewed on a bitter bug.

It clearly expressed that the demon named Zoa was an extremely unpleasant and terrifying existence to this man.

On the other hand, Astrue replied with an annoyed look.

「Being careful is good, but anything beyond that is cowardly. You are the leader of this plan, so please be a little more firm.」

「You can say whatever you want. I don’t want to die like Grampals.」

「It’s fine. As long as the opponent isn’t the same race as us, it’s highly unlikely that we’ll lose. Besides, humans from the Empire who are comparable to us are exploring deep in the Wislo Dungeon, and the sentinel and the adventurers of the Arto Kingdom are all small fries. The only strong looking guy, Bride, was also brought over to our side by Grampals… I heard that he’s missing right now. He was also probably killed by Zoa as well.」

In reality, Bride was defeated by Aun in the finals of the ranking battle and was currently imprisoned in the royal castle’s dungeon, but this information has not been passed on to these two. Furthermore, they assumed that the magic airships were defeated during the war because the dragonewt race was stronger than they thought.

However, since the next plan will be carried out within the Empire, it would be absolutely impossible for the Dragonewt race, whose top priority is to protect the village, to appear at the Council of the Seven Sphin Nations.

In which case, the only country they should be careful of is the Bukyo Kingdom. And they have received information from a brainwashed human Bukyo that “only the shogun and one bodyguard will enter the country.”

The female demonfolk called Astrue was underestimating the humans. There was no one in the Imperial Capital of Ibrand who could defeat them, the demonfolk, by force of arms.

「Hmm, I see. I suppose we have also prepared several S-rank magic beasts in addition to that.」

「Fufu!, the imperial capital will turn into a sea of fire overnight. Once that happens, we can take advantage of the chaos and get rid of all the important people all at once and everything will be over.」

「Yeah. After that, we can crush every country one by one. They will no longer be a threat to the resurrection of the Demon King.」

Not limited to these two, demons basically tend to look down on humans.

Demons, naturally born with great power, are able to attain enough power to even control S-rank monsters as they grow up. Compared to that, though they are technologically more advanced and have much greater numbers than the demons, the majority of the human races are vulnerable as individuals… Needless to say, the demons have overwhelming fighting power in terms of individual strength capacity.

What’s more, they have spent a long time trying to accomplish this plan. Instead of using brute force, they chose to control the Empire from the shadows. And so far things have gone according to plan.

There’s been a slight miss in the plans recently, but for these two it’s still within the margin of error.

「Five years until the Demon King is resurrected. Shall we clean up before that?」

「It seems that the humans are making various preparations, but once it starts, they will be able to do nothing but run away.」

「Fufu! I’m looking forward to the day of the council.」

The male and female demons laughed. Imagining the sight of humans fleeing and dying helplessly……

The opening of the Council of Seven Sphin Nations, an unprecedented event, was getting closer by the minute.