In the luxurious hall of the round table were two beings capable of deciding the fate of nations. All the other guardians of the floors received important tasks and began to carry them out. Except for Shalltear, and Albedo - who continued to fanatically watch the adventures of her idol through the mirror of distant vision in the throne room, carefully recording all the important details. Especially those details concerning the harassment of her beloved by "cheap sluts".
- Pandora's Actor, remember, this mission is extremely important for our majestic lord. The Lord of Dawn will be extremely displeased if you fail, - slowly shaking his head, the demon in a stylish suit continued to instruct his subordinate, now his subordinate, personally handed over to him for training by the Lord of Dawn. - If you fail to infiltrate the future council, then we will be limited in information, - Demiurge reminded, smiling contentedly.
- Of Course! - the keeper of the treasury, dressed in the clothes of the German secret police, answered, sharply making a strange gesture with his hand, raising it excessively to the side.
"Excellent, our master will definitely be pleased," the demon praised joyfully. "But do not forget to maintain constant contact with me, and also ask for advice in any situation. Your mission will determine the fate of more than one of our plans."
The demon had many plans, and most of them had not even entered the phase of actively polishing the details. The Lord had given his subordinates a lot of work, which made everyone happy. For example, just recently the Lord of Dawn personally contacted his deputy, ordering him to prepare the very plan that would determine the fate of not only Nazarick, but the entire continent. The only thing left to do was to manage the available resources wisely. However, everything turned out to be so easy that it was even funny. Demiurge's entire intellect simply screamed: "You are simply being led by the hand, like a child on an excursion."
Hence the caution of the most intelligent being in the Great Tomb of Nazarick. With such amazing maneuvers, gifted to him personally by Bondrewd, if he made even one miscalculation, the slightest mistake, he would only be able to humbly beg for forgiveness on his knees. No, now the Archdevil was completely confident in his plan, calculated for hundreds, if not thousands of moves ahead.
"If this helps me become more perfect, so that my hidden power awakens, and my blood boils to the level of magma, rushing into my hot heart!" Pandora's Actor rumbled in a singing voice, theatrically lowering his head down.
"Very well, you are the creation of the former Lord of the Supreme Beings, so don't talk, but act," having motivated his subordinate, the demon left him alone, and he himself stood up from the chair in the shape of a small throne, after which he went for a walk to the throne room.
Any minute now, Tokisaki Kurumi, the guardian of all three of his master's laboratories, was supposed to contact him. By order of the Lord of Dawn, she was required to report every important detail of her situation and surroundings daily. This primarily concerned the safety of the Lord of Dawn, but sometimes the information concerned adjustments to the Total War IV plan.
Message.
Kurumi had contacted him, relaying important information that Mr. Bondrewd had decided to personally interfere with his carefully laid plan. There was no way to blame him for that, not even the thought had crossed his mind. But he still had to figure it out. If the Lord of the Chimeras had interfered, then his humble servant must have made a miscalculation somewhere.
Message: "So, our lord decided to help Renner Teyre Chardelon Ryle Vaiself escape from prison, and also punished the culprit of the conspiracy?" Demiurge thoughtfully clarified.
Message: "I also found it strange. The Lord is the cruelest of all the supreme beings, for him mercy is just a tool, not a weakness," Kurumi said matter-of-factly.
All the convolutions in the demon's head tensed up. The master's intervention breaks a decent chain of connections, for example, one of the plans should happen in a few minutes.
The king of the country died, and dangerous criminals nicknamed "Eight Fingers" were conveniently located in the capital of the kingdom. They were supposed to serve as good pawns at the behest of the princess, so that later a "random" group of knights would save her, allowing him to secretly build up his military power separately from the country. He also planned to exile Gazef Stronoff to her as a "falsely accused" captain of the guard.
At first glance, the result of the micro-plan should not affect anything, but that's only at first glance. Once other kingdoms invade Re-Estize, the exiled princess will serve as bait to draw the army deep into the country, luring thousands of troops into a trap. The further the united forces move away from the borders of their own states, the easier it will be for the demon to implement plans to increase the enmity between the Theocracy and the Elven Kingdom, as well as try out a dozen other moves.
However, the Lord of Dawn considered protecting the princess a higher priority than his sabotage. There is definitely a hidden meaning here… The gears of the mechanism continued to spin desperately, developing an inconceivable speed, and allowing the Demiurge's thought process to process hundreds of possible futures; upcoming events - that could happen.
And finally...
Amidst the endless stream of consciousness, a click occurred, giving an answer to the obvious. Demiurge's plan was designed for a systematic cleansing by others, blaming others, throwing it around like a hot potato. As a result, no one would consider Nazarick the guilty party in the most hidden and bloody war. A secret war - and that was the problem. In the demon's opinion, along with the obvious lack of minuses in the plan, there was a meager number of pluses.
The biggest pluses were only in the Lord's plan, but the demon did not have enough information to calculate all the minuses.
Unexpectedly, his stream of consciousness came across images of Bondrewd's frequent interactions with Ulbert, his creator. The Chimera Lord endlessly poured out a stream of information on interrogation methods, the horrors of war, and the intricacies of manipulating lesser beings. His creator often asked clarifying questions, agreed with the information, or even praised it. Sometimes, he openly objected. But any objections were quickly shattered by a shield of impregnable arguments, which showed the Lord of Dawn's intelligence. Even his creator, as hard as it was to admit, had an intellect lower than the current Overlord of Nazarick. Therefore, it was impossible to calculate all of his plans, but one could try his luck in reading at least part of them.
To feel the fine line, which he seemed to have managed to grasp firmly.
Message: "The lord will still show his cruelty, but do not forget, our ruler is also distinguished by his deadly mercy to enemies. After implementing the plan with the princess, strengthening the position and preparing...", - the demon thought again, but then waved his hand at the doubts. - "However, it does not matter."
"Soon, I hope, I will be gifted with at least a crumb of information on… the Holy Kingdom… I am sure that the Lord of Dawn will place his bets on this country… and on my modest military talents in managing the army, and as for "them"… I can do it myself, but it requires efficiency, it will not be easy," Demiurge thought to himself.
Messages: "How you like to speak in hints and riddles. The gentleman said that he plans to use powerful equipment, including borrowed equipment due to the abundance of scale, to put on a grand performance."
Message: "Anything else?"
Message: "The rest... hee hee, secret."
Message: "Understood, then as agreed, if possible keep me informed of the situation to correlate plans. All for the sake of the Lord of Dawn!", - he proudly responded to the girl's mockery, perfectly understanding that they were taking revenge on him for his omissions.
"Sometimes it's hard to communicate with anyone other than a gentleman who can grasp the whole picture of what's going on from a few casually thrown phrases."
To sum it up, the demon decided to leave everything as is for now. The chess pieces are set up and doing their job, and the doppelgangers have already taken some key positions in four countries.
Not bad.
Quite quickly, he managed to arrange everything so that within two or three years he could give his master four countries, and also prepare the ground in two others for further invasion. Another important fact worth noting is that all of Demiurge's plans did not include the participation of Lord Dawn. Until now.
"If the lord decides to intervene, it will be necessary to plug the resource gap for the Holy Kingdom. I am sure that the very name of this country will bring disaster upon it, so there is no other option. It is even easier this way."
— It will probably take a maximum of six months, and also…
Feudal society requires a political foundation; the Lord of Dawn is currently preparing it. It is not for nothing that they say that it is necessary to follow the rule - "divide and rule". During the discussions with Ulbert, which Demiurge was able to witness back in Yggdrasil, he heard this phrase and its interpretation more than once. The essence comes down to not only dividing the troops, but also dividing morality. It should not be surprising, rulers can easily squeeze resources not only from taxes, but also from bandits. Impossible to destroy? Lead! Divide your power into good and evil, remaining in the shadows. In the end, you need to become the only one who will reap your harvest with the hands of others.
Passing by the Sous-Chef's bar, the demon noticed out of the corner of his eye a vampire who was getting completely drunk. Shalltear, who was sitting at the bar, had wrinkled the maroon dress that the Supreme Being had given her, and her face was very red. The bartender was not happy about her visit, the girl did not have good manners during her constant drinking sessions. They had started quite recently, right after the vampire was released from house arrest by order of Lord Dawn.
— And I write and write, write and write, write and write... How did I screw up like that? Shit. Pour me some more...
- Lady Shalltear, you...
- More…
- But I...
- More…
Demiurge merely shook his head at this, continuing to slowly walk towards the throne room, where he could learn more information from the guard general. But he had not forgotten about Shalltear. For a moment, the demon hesitated between revealing the truth to her or leaving everything as it was.
The demon was one hundred percent sure that the Lord of Dawn simply wanted to use her failure to show all the other guards the importance of following orders, as well as the fact that caution was above all else.
For this reason, the Lord of Dawn sent Shalltear on a useless mission to gather information in the city, knowing full well where it would lead. In the end, the result was beyond praise, because one action started not just a machine, but turned on the energy in the entire factory where they were produced.
Yes, even a righteous butler like Sebas had nothing to say, because the secret launch of Operation Total War IV had gone so well that probably no one else had noticed it except the demon. The Lord was able to not only point out potential mistakes to the guards, but also demonstrate the carrot and stick method. Moreover, he did not shake the resolve of all the "light guards" for a moment. Oh no, the Lord of Dawn was even able to start the terrifying mechanism that Demiurge never stopped admiring for a moment. After all, the "horror factory", as he called it, would probably continue to operate for many more years.
"The intellect of the Lord of Dawn is not something that can be approached with my meager capabilities. But this is not scary, the progress of a higher being is limitless, even if it is already on the verge of perfection. And according to him - we can and must develop. One day I will catch that beautiful moment when I will be able to look at the world with the same eyes with which the Lord of Dawn is looking at them now. And then I will strive for a new edge, and so on ad infinitum, until my existence ceases to be pleasing to our master. And in order not to disappoint him, I will work even harder."
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