I Favor the Villainess - CH 215

“…… The Demon Queen?”

Eh, what’s with that?

Even in the original game, the existence of the demons wasn’t really touched upon, so perhaps a demon lord actually existed, but I had personally never heard of something so over-the-top in the game at all.

Well, that was as long as the Demon Queen that Dorothea was speaking of was from the game at all.

“Mother, what is the Demon Queen……?”

Philine asked nervously.

She didn’t seem as timid as she did before, but one could tell that she was very puzzled by Dorothea’s words.

Dorothea continued, paying no mind to her confusion.

“As the name implies, they’re the person that controls all of the monsters and demons. I have met her once.”

To my surprise, there was a hint of fear in Dorothea’s voice.

The same Dorothea who had painted herself as such an extremely arrogant and bold character.

“That was before I took up the throne.”

According to Dorothea, her encounter with the Demon Queen was by complete coincidence.

At the time, she was just seven years old.

Dorothea, who had already begun showing promising swordsmanship abilities back then, had participated in some battles against demons in order to gain some practical experience in combat.

Of course, she wasn’t part of the frontlines or anything.

No matter how much of a prodigy she was, she was still a member of the Imperial family.

It seemed that she simply wanted to use the combat experience in order to add some value to her own background.

Based on previous data that they had, they went to a battleground that was deemed to be relatively safe, and simply wanted to observe it from a distance.

However, that was when she had that fateful encounter.

She ended up meeting an existence that she called the Demon Queen.

“I had heard about how strong demons were. However, that thing was…… the Demon Queen was overwhelming. At the time, I had planned to do something against the Three Great Archdukes, but even with the way I am right now, I don’t think I could do anything against the Demon Queen. They’re hardly what you could call a human being. They’re practically a walking calamity.”

The expedition team that Dorothea was a part of was instantly annihilated.

Although she had also bared her sword against the Demon Queen, it had no effect whatsoever.

“I was prepared to die. However, strangely enough, they didn’t kill me, even though they killed everyone else.”

Puzzled, Dorothea asked the Demon Queen:

“Why are you not going to kill me?”

“This is what they replied with: ‘If I kill you here, history will change too much.’ Even now, I still don’t know what they meant by that.”

But in the end, Dorothea’s life was spared.

That was when she came to a decision.

“In order to defeat the Demon Queen, we’ll need the collective power of mankind.”

Dorothea did everything she could in order to achieve it.

In other words, the aggressive diplomacy that she continued to promote was just a way of achieving that.

Without any regard for who may disagree with her.

“Even though they sound really powerful and all, are you telling me that their existence managed to fly under our radars this entire time?”

His Majesty William asked a legitimate question.

“This is just my guess, but I think that has something to do with the ‘alternating history’ thing that they talked about.”

“Which means…?”

“With a threat like that, it must be something so big that it could change the world forever. If she doesn’t want to do something that may alternate history, then that means it’s unlikely she’ll get her own hands dirty.”

“Hmm…… That sounds kind of vague, but either way, that doesn’t seem like a good thing for humanity.”

His Majesty William snorted like he was unamused.

“If a threat like that existed, then it’s not just a matter of explaining it. If you wanted to earn the cooperation of others, there were countless other ways of doing it without putting everyone through your aggressive diplomacy.”

“Claire François, you know nothing about politics. When it comes to diplomacy that involves each and every country, discussions are too ineffective.”

Weapons, economics, ideas, ethics―― there were a lot of ways to negotiate when it came to diplomacy, but Dorothea looked down on the value of discussion.

I disagreed with her opinion there, but there were many people who thought the same way as her back in 21st century Japan.

“If there’s a strong, common enemy, then I’d bet there are lots of people who’d listen to what you had to say.”

Claire-sama was pinning the blame on Dorothea again.

On the other hand, Dorothea shook her head as if Claire-sama didn’t understand anything.

“Of course they would, but listening is all they’d do. The Empire is the only country that needs to fend the demons off, after all.”

“Couldn’t you have recruited the help of everyone else just like Philine did?”

“You’re telling me to do that right in front of the enemy? As I said before, the Empire is already fending the demons off. Because of that, no other country has to deal with the threat of being invaded by them anyway.”

What Dorothea was saying was true.

At the very least, when we were still in Bauer, we were never threatened by the existence of demons.

“But that doesn’t mean it was right of you to annex other countries!”

“You’re right. I don’t believe what I did was right either, but it was the best I could do.”

“Although you’ve defeated me now,” Dorothea said as she laughed self-deprecatingly.

“Dorothea, I understand your true intentions now. However, what did you mean when you said that the demons were going to invade now?”

And why now?

“You are all aware that the demons can’t get into the capital, correct?”

“Yes. That’s because of the barrier, right?”

“Correct. However, the demons can send humans out instead.”

According to Dorothea, the imperial bureaucrats that fled during the bloodshed earlier were a part of that.

“Those spies will be going back to the demons to tell them that I’ve killed you all. Once they do that, they’ll be starting their invasion.”

“Is that the reason why you stated that you wanted to kill us all earlier?”

Claire-sama asked.

If that were the case, then even if she was just faking it, she really took it too far.

“It wasn’t an act. I was planning to take it to the point where you’d kill me instead. And if you were able to kill me off, then I thought I’d leave the rest in your hands.”

“Philine, your mother is too difficult to understand!”

“I’m sorry! I’m really sorry!”

When I yelled that out, Philine bowed a countless number of times.

“So then, what are we going to do now? The summit turned out to be a huge mess too.”

The non-combatants returned right as His Majesty William looked around him and commented on our surroundings.

“Dorothea, how long do you think we’ll have before the demons attack?”

When Dor-sama posed the question to her, Dorothea paused before,

“It will probably take about two weeks for them to break through all of the forts that we have set up.”

She answered with that.

“Two weeks…… That’s not enough time.”

Dor-sama had a bitter expression on his face.

Even Bauer, which was located closest to the Empire, would barely be able to provide their support in time.

At this rate, the idea of getting all of mankind to help out was nothing but a pipe dream.

“You didn’t come this far just out of sheer recklessness though, right, Dorothea?”

“Onee-sama! I see you’ve recovered.”

“Yeah, somehow. I’m sorry for worrying you, Claire.”

Claire-sama, who looked like she was overflowing with emotions, jumped right into Manaria-sama’s chest.

I was a little jelly, but I understood how she felt, so I’ll let it go for now.

Hmph, I can hug Claire-sama any time I want to anyway!

“I have a plan.”

Dorothea said in response to Manaria-sama’s question.

“One of the forts between the demon territory and the Imperial capital is equipped with a large-scale stationary offensive magical tool. If it gets activated, it should be powerful enough to blow away the fort, as well as the demons.”

The stationary magical tool that Dorothea was referring to seemed to be a collection of all of the Empire’s best magical techniques.

It was powerful enough that it could result in maps having to be rewritten.

“If something so convenient existed, then you should just detonate it in the demon territory instead.”

“It can’t be installed just anywhere. It’s a magical tool that requires a vein from a volcanic belt.”

When Dorothea explained that, something suddenly came into my mind.

“Dorothea, could it be that you were the one that erupted the Sassal volcano with that tool?”

When I posed my question to her, Claire-sama, Dor-sama and Sein-sama all had perplexed looks on their faces.

“You’re sharp, Rei Taylor. That’s right. The magical tool is activated through the fire and soil that flow through the earth’s veins.”

Dorothea answered without any malice in her voice.

I see, it finally made sense.

Perhaps the reason why the volcano erupted earlier than in the original work was because the Empire was pulling some strings from behind the scenes.

Well, there was the possibility that the eruption from the original work was also the work of the Empire as well, though.

“…… You!”

Surprisingly, it was His Majesty Sein that went to grab Dorothea by the collar.

His face, which always looked melancholic, looked ignited by his overflowing emotions.

“…… Do you have any idea how many people in Bauer suffered because of your magical tool?! Even now, there are still many people that are suffering from starvation and are as thin as paper!”

His Majesty Sein, who loved his people more than anything, was traumatized by the devastation of the Kingdom after the eruption of the Sassal volcano.

To be told that it was actually intentionally caused by somebody, it was something he could never forgive them for.

“I have no excuses. I intended to take control of your country, so I couldn’t be picky with my methods.”

“…… You’re just going to take it?!”

“Well, what is it that you want from me then?”

Dorothea asked while His Majesty Sein was still holding her by the neck.

“……. I don’t want anything from you. I hope you rot in hell.”

“No no no, Your Majesty Sein. That’s a bad move. You should at least demand an apology and some compensation from her.”

I could understand how he felt emotionally, but it wasn’t a good idea to rely on emotions only.

He needed to be clear in his demands and think about how he could use it to better the future.

“I’m willing to issue an apology and compensate you. However, that choice is all up to Philine now.”

“Huh? M-Me?”

Upon being called out suddenly, Philine’s eyes widened in astonishment.

“Yes, you, Philine. I will be retiring from the throne. You will be the next Empress.”