Chapter 303: Simultaneous Attack Plan

Clang.

“Humming~.”

Deon hummed softly, dropping sugar cubes into his tea.

A rare, lighthearted demeanor. Unlike his usual self, burdened as if carrying heavy baggage, he seemed carefree, as if nothing in the world could worry him. The Demon King, who had been reviewing documents, turned his gaze towards him.

The questioning gaze soon shifted to one of slight weariness as the number of sugar cubes increased, surpassing six and reaching the seventh.

“Something good happen?”

As if he had forgotten the Demon King’s presence, Deon paused and looked up, startled. His eyes, devoid of any emotion, yet clear, met the Demon King’s gaze.

Silence returned instead of an answer, but the Demon King continued to speak, unfazed.

“Does that paperwork contain good news? I was wondering why you were handling documents in my office all of a sudden. Seems like you had something to brag about.”

“…No. There was nothing that could be called good news. And nothing to brag about either.”

“Then?”

“Must there be a reason?”

Deon replied innocently, taking a sip of the tea brimming with sugar. Even as he drank, he held documents in his other hand, his eyes scanning the contents.

The overly sweet tea aroma filled the office, prompting the Demon King to open a window. A breeze flowed in, and Deon’s expression visibly relaxed. In the quiet space, the Demon King’s voice settled in like background music.

“Well, not necessarily, but… you just seem unusually cheerful today.”

“…”

“I thought you’d be in bad shape after everything that happened, but it’s a relief you’re doing okay.”

Could he know about what happened last night? Or is he just referring to the recent series of events? Almost instinctively, Deon’s mind raced to decipher the Demon King’s intentions.

‘Either way, it’s useless information.’

Deon consciously cut off the train of thought and refocused on the documents.

These were documents containing information gathered by Develania, who was monitoring each country as per his previous orders. At least the very first page contained useless information.

‘The scale of Rweche’s Heroes.’

He flipped through page after page, only to return to the first page he had already read, and stared down at it.

Lirinel had already found this out. She even knew the core of their arrays.

Too late. How could the Commander of the 2nd Corps, whose main duty is information gathering, be slower than the Commander of the 11th Corps? Gazing at the ink-stained trash, he reached out to the Demon King.

“Do you happen to have scissors?”

“Scissors? Here. Why?”

…The order seems reversed. Shouldn’t you usually ask for the reason before giving them?

In any case, he took the scissors and began to snip at the documents. It wasn’t to cut out anything in particular, just to shred them into small pieces. The small, somehow eerie sound also contained his resentment towards Develania, who kept impudently poking at him.

Watching this with interest, the Demon King opened his mouth quietly.

“If there’s no good news, and nothing to brag about, then why are you here?”

You usually handle paperwork in your own room or private office, right?

It was a calm question, seemingly without any particular intention. Deon put down the scissors and smiled at him.

“It’s about time.”

“…Ah.”

There was no way he wouldn’t understand the meaning of those words.

At the light exclamation that seemed to indicate understanding, Deon pushed the teacup aside and spread a map in the center of the table.

“I’ll be mentioning this at the meeting anyway… but I’ll tell you in advance.”

His straight finger pointed to three locations.

“As you already know, the rulers of each country are staying at this place, this place, and this place respectively. Instead of carelessly distributing their troops, they’re planning to concentrate all their forces in one location to face the Demon King’s army.”

“…”

“In other words, it means the Demon King’s army can reach the city where the rulers are staying without much obstruction.”

“Hmm, and so?”

Red pupils narrowed into slits. Deon grinned, pulling up the corners of his lips.

“We will attack the three kingdoms simultaneously.”

As if surprised by the unexpected words, the Demon King’s eyes widened, then soon filled with a joy bordering on madness, breaking into a wide smile. From between his upturned lips came a voice that was soft yet excited.

“To attack multiple countries at once… this is unprecedented in Demon Realm history.”

Attacking one country first, and then facing multiple nations as they naturally allied—that might happen. But attacking multiple countries simultaneously from the start had never occurred before.

Usually, wouldn’t the natural course be to destroy one, and then attack the next kingdom?

“This way can shorten the time, can’t it? They’re already cornered after losing many troops, and if we mobilize all legions, it’s more than possible.”

“Haha, you’re right!”

Even as the end approaches, you still amuse me.

This is why I can’t let you go. How could I discard a toy that always provides entertainment and never gets boring?

The Demon King, who had already abandoned his paperwork, walked over and sat on the sofa opposite Deon, crossing his legs and laughing cheerfully.

“Alright. The Human Realm is betting everything, so we should at least reciprocate with due courtesy.”

“…”

“Thanks to holding the hunting competition, there are no worries about magical beasts, and there are no risk factors to attack the Demon King’s castle, so there’s no need for defense.”

Of course, there are hyena-like beings from the Abyss, like the Fairy race, Vampires, and Dwarves, but they won’t attack the Demon King’s castle as long as Deon Hart is alive. They are the types who try to achieve something through Deon Hart.

Once Deon Hart’s usefulness is over, I won’t be around, so no need to worry.

Therefore.

“It means it’s the perfect time to mobilize all legions and legion commanders.”

“…”

“Go ahead and draft a plan to mobilize everything. This is going to be fun.”

“…According to Develania’s investigation, they have distributed their troops evenly across each city. The number of Heroes included in each is about four.”

As if expecting approval, or as if it were a given, Deon naturally took over the Demon King’s words and began to recite the next part.

“In other words, it means their greatest force, the Heroes, are not deployed in the cities.”

“Then those guys are planning to fight somewhere other than the cities, huh.”

“Yes, I thought so too. And coincidentally, here, there are records of patrols from each country wandering around various regions, seemingly trying to choose a place for the Heroes to fight…”

He flipped through the documents a few times, found the intended content, and placed it on top.

Region A was visited once by the Empire’s side, Region B twice by Sanguo and once by Rweche… He tapped the top line of the table, neatly organized in order of most frequent visits. The Demon King’s gaze followed his fingertip.

“The place they visited most frequently and where routes overlapped a lot is right here. They’re probably planning to fight here.”

It was a place within the triangular area formed by connecting each country’s cities. A location from which they could quickly come and go to any city.

The Demon King shrugged lightly.

“This must be to deal with you. Are they trying to lure you out?”

“Yes. Probably.”

“To prepare troops and a battlefield just for you. You’re popular, Deon.”

“…Nonsense.”

Thump—Deon collapsed onto the wide sofa, taking the documents he was cutting and picked up the scissors again.

Impudent words coupled with impudent behavior. The Demon King chuckled hollowly at his actions, as if he didn’t care about him at all.

“Your words and actions in front of the Demon King are quite unrestrained.”

“Are you going to get angry?”

“No. Let’s continue our conversation. Do you know what methods they’ll use to lure you out?”

Snip. The scissors cut the edge of the document.

“Not in detail yet. But I don’t mind being lured, so it doesn’t matter.”

“So you’re planning to move alone. Certainly, having others around would be a hindrance and inconvenience for you.”

“Yes. Most of the Heroes will be facing me, so it won’t be bad for the others who are laying siege to the cities.”

“Do you know anything about the terrain here?”

“The location presumed to be the battlefield itself is a plain, but there are many cliffs and mountains of suitable height around it.”

“Humans chose well.”

It’s easy to deploy long-range Heroes and very good for melee Heroes to run wild.

Knowing this, you’re still going to fall for the lure? Stroking his chin, the Demon King looked down at the scattered documents on the desk and suddenly asked.

“Are you going to be alright alone?”

“I’m alright precisely because I’m alone.”

“I suppose so.”

As he said, it would be easier for a Heroic Spirit to not have others holding him back. But if he could fight more comfortably, why would he willingly be lured into unfavorable terrain?

As if belatedly reading the meaning in his words, Deon added an answer.

“If I didn’t get lured out, and those many Heroes changed their plans and went to support each city, it would be troublesome. I don’t want to be greedy and ruin everything.”

“…Alright. Then let me ask the opposite.”

“…?”

“Are you confident that the forces without a Heroic Spirit will succeed in the siege?”

The hand cutting paper stopped.

Deon took his eyes off the documents and looked at the Demon King. At the gaze that seemed to ask why he was asking such pointless questions, the Demon King smiled slyly, waving documents he had picked up at some point.

“Seeing that they placed four Heroes in one location, it seems they haven’t given up on siege defense either. Failure isn’t entirely impossible, right? If they hole up in the city with these forces and hold out, it will be difficult to break through or lure them out.”

“…”

“They must have been diligently transporting food without missing this current period when the demons are completely back in the Demon Realm resting.”

Let’s see—.

Putting down the documents related to Hero deployment, the Demon King rummaged through the document piles on the table and soon found a section and pointed to it.

“That’s right. Here, it says Rweche transported food to each city.”

“…It’s troublesome if you rummage through documents that others are handling without permission.”

“Wasn’t it put here for me to see? At least it’s okay to look at, since you brought it all the way here.”

“…”

Correct.

Deon didn’t bother to answer, instead getting up to drink his tea, mentally replaying the part the Demon King had mentioned.

The Human Realm’s appearance as if they were determined for siege defense, and Rweche’s food sharing.

And what emerged was….

‘King of Rweche is quite something.’

…Such a nonchalant impression.

If Rweche had used its stockpiled troops solely for its own country, instead of just holding onto one city, they could have deployed troops to the cities that the enemy would have to pass through to reach that city, and held out for longer. The king made a very big decision.

Rweche distributed the troops they had accumulated to allied countries that were short on forces. They put out the Heroes they had painstakingly gathered as pawns to catch the Heroic Spirit, and shared food with allied countries that were already short due to the long drought.

It was an unavoidable action to protect the Human Realm, but it was indeed a bold decision.

‘Sanguo and the Empire are the only ones who caught a break.’

They were struggling from the long drought and the lack of decent trading companies, but they must be thrilled now.

Anyway, since I received a question, I should answer. Even thinking about it again, it’s a pointless question. He moved his stopped hand and answered while continuing to cut the paper.

“The Demon King’s army has invaded the Human Realm without a Heroic Spirit before.”

At the answer that came out as if it were obvious, the Demon King smoothly raised the corner of his mouth.

“But they have never succeeded.”

“That’s why we’re exceptionally mobilizing all legions. The ‘Hero’ is originally the legion commander’s counterpart.”

The Heroic Spirit faces the Demon King, and Heroes face legion commanders.

“Deploying four legions per city should be sufficient.”

“There are four Heroes staying in the city, and some legions don’t have legion commanders?”

“That part is…”

Snip.

An instant of chilling silence descended. The Demon King paused, quietly watching Deon’s fingers, and Deon also lowered his gaze to the pain felt at his fingertips.

…His finger was half-cut.

“…Ah.”

“‘Ah’ my ass…”

Ben seemed to have rushed over immediately from outside and knocked on the door… but stopped, as if sensing the signal had ceased, and turned back.

The Demon King snatched the scissors from Deon’s hand and examined his finger, which had already healed completely in the meantime. Whether the other party touched his finger or not, Deon sat still and thought. Thanks to that, something he had just thought of came to mind.

Long ago, something Ed had presented to cheer him up, a Demon Realm item.

‘Right, there was Snowfall Stick.’