Der Werwolf: The Annals of Veight Volume 10

1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7183-3118-1
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 302 Seiten

Reihe: Der Werwolf: The Annals of Veight

Airia has become the new Demon Lord, but Veight's job as the Demon Lord's Vice-Commander hasn't changed. With Meraldia finally at peace, he's free to focus his efforts on bringing the nation greater prosperity.
But his peaceful days don't last very long as a messenger from the southern nation of Kuwol arrives at his doorstep. Their country is on the brink of civil war, and Kuwol's king wants the demon army's assistance in quelling the unrest. Veight sends Parker over to investigate the situation, but soon after they arrive, civil war breaks out, and he goes missing. Determined to get his friend back, Veight sets out on a journey to find Parker.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hyougetsu

Weitere Mitwirkende

Nishi(E)da

Ningen

Leseproben

Chapter 10

I was reincarnated as a werewolf, became the Demon Lord’s Vice-Commander, and transformed Meraldia into a nation where humans and demons could live together in harmony. I thought things would calm down after that, but then one of the dead Senators came back as a lich using the power of Draulight’s Legacy, a magical artifact designed to create Heroes. Once we stopped him, the artifact hijacked Airia’s body, and after a long series of events she ended up becoming the demon army’s third Demon Lord.

Incidentally, our new Demon Lord is sleeping next to me right now. I got married to her the other day, and now my boss is also my wife.

“What time is it?” I muttered sleepily.

There was something deeply comforting about waking up next to someone. The autumn chill had set in, but because Airia and I slept in the same bed, the nights were never cold. Honestly, I thought I’d be too nervous to get any rest when we first started sleeping together, but I got used to it surprisingly quickly. Now there was nothing more relaxing than falling asleep nestled in her warm embrace. Airia likely felt the same way, since she also nuzzled against me when we slept. The past few days, we always woke up in each other’s arms.

Last night I’d gone to bed with my head resting in Airia’s chest, but our positions had reversed some time during the night and now it was Airia who was using me as a pillow. She was sleeping so peacefully that I felt like it would be wrong to wake her up. But the sun was out, and if I didn’t do it soon, one of the maids would wake her up instead.

Once Airia was up, we went down to eat breakfast. As we ate, we discussed our plans for the day. I was her assistant, so she needed to be aware of my schedule.

“Beluza’s warriors got into a fight with some of Lotz’s soldiers at a bar last night,” I muttered as I read over the daily report Wengen had sent me. A fight between groups like this wasn’t something we could afford to brush off. If we didn’t address the issue quickly, it could escalate into a dispute between the two cities. It was best if we nipped this problem in the bud.

“I’ll go mediate. This isn’t something the Demon Lord needs to trouble herself with.”

“Try not to scare them, okay?” Airia replied with a worried look, and I smiled ruefully.

“Do I really terrify people that badly?”

“You’re Meraldia’s most famous general. People are more scared of you than you think.”

“I see... In that case, how about I discuss things with the captains of both squadrons instead of disciplining the soldiers myself?”

“That’s a much better idea. If you handled the issue personally, it would become a bigger deal than it needs to be.”

If every little thing I did had such dire repercussions, I needed to pass off yet more of my responsibilities onto other people. Sadly, he’d be mad with me if I brought on another vice-commander, so I had no choice but to divvy up tasks between a large group.

“We really need to hurry and train a new generation of skilled bureaucrats.”

“Indeed. It’s impossible for us to keep track of developments in all seventeen cities by ourselves. Taking care of our duties is hard enough as it is.”

Meraldia was simply too large for us to manage on our own; we needed to find people we could trust to pick up some of the slack.

“There’s so much to do that we can’t even take any time off,” I grumbled.

Airia chuckled and replied, “But you like being busy, don’t you?”

Maybe I would be able to take it easier in the future, but right now, I had plenty of work on my plate. My hardest job was making sure everyone got along. There were so many disputes between humans and demons, northerners and southerners, and Sonnenlicht believers and Mondstrahl adherents. Everyone had their own circumstances which led to conflict, and resolving those conflicts was never easy. Fortunately, I was friends with the leaders of every influential organization, but they had responsibilities to their people as well, and just because we were friends didn’t mean they’d always listen to my requests. Of course, these disputes were hardly anything new, but I wished people weren’t so eager to leap at each other’s throats.

Making a human viceroy the new Demon Lord had gone a long way towards easing tensions, at least. Both humans and demons were willing to respect her as the ultimate authority in Meraldia.

“Airia, do you want another egg?”

“Where did that come from?”

“You need to eat more if you want to keep your strength up.”

I was basically a cross between Airia’s personal manager and her representative. If two incidents that required the Demon Lord’s attention popped up at the same time, it was my job to take care of one of them. My most important duty, though, was filtering out the requests that came her way. Halfway through my morning paperwork, a situation came up where I had to do just that.

“...A petition for the Demon Lord, huh?”

I looked down at the document that had come from across the sea. Garsh had delivered it personally.

“The guy knew Petore’d just shut him down so he came crying to me and asked if I could deliver it.”

Petore was too hardened a merchant to be moved by tears. Meanwhile, Garsh put up a tough guy act, but he was a big softie inside. Naturally, this meant all merchants brought their issues to the council through him, rather than through Petore. This particular petition had come from one of the nations in the continent south of the Sea of Solitude, Kuwol. Geographically, Meraldia lay around where Italy or Spain did back on earth, so the southern continent had a climate similar to Africa’s northern coast. Much like the ancient empires that had ruled northern Africa, the kingdom of Kuwol was a maritime nation. It was a longtime trading partner of Beluza and Lotz, and it was more of a confederation of powerful tribes than a true kingdom. Most of the citizens were Mondstrahlists, which was partly why there was no real central authority. The Mondstrahl religion valued freedom over cohesion, after all.

“If it’s a letter from the king himself, we probably can’t hand this off to anyone else.”

Petore had balls for turning down a royal envoy, but he probably knew Meraldia was safe from retribution since it was so far from the southern continent. No nation would profit from a potential invasion of Meraldia, no matter how powerful they were. Of course, Petore must have known the envoy would head to Beluza when he turned the man away. Chances were, he didn’t actually want to keep the royal envoy out, he just didn’t want to deal with the hassle of escorting him.

Reading over the petition, it appeared that Kuwol wanted Meraldia’s help in patrolling its lands. The king was feuding with the nobles who held land along the coast, and the nation was on the brink of civil war. Apparently, the king had raised taxes on port towns in an attempt to fill his empty coffers, which had angered the coastal nobles and the merchant guilds. Incidentally, the reason the king’s coffers were empty was because he’d spent too much money on a new palace.

After I finished reading the letter, I sighed. “This nation’s king is a moron. Even a child knows not to spend more money than you have.”

“Yeah. The old geezer said the same thing.” Garsh folded his arms and nodded thoughtfully. “‘No way an imbecile who can’t keep his country’s merchants happy will have a deal worth a damn. I ain’t dealing with him.’”

Putting Kuwol in our debt would definitely be a boon for Meraldia, but there was no point in doing any favors for a foolish king like that. There were plenty of neighboring tribes that were allied with Kuwol, but from the looks of things, they weren’t lifting a finger to help this guy either. He’d already been abandoned by his closest allies, so it made little sense for us to aid him.

“Besides, he didn’t even send anyone over to forge diplomatic ties when we went from a Federation to a Commonwealth but now he’s coming to us crying for help?”

Scowling, Garsh nodded in agreement. “You said it. He kept turning our messengers away before, but now that he’s in trouble, he’s suddenly acting all friendly.”

“He probably changed his tune because the new Demon Lord is a human. Plus, she’s kind, wise, beautiful, and...”

“Err, sorry for rambling. The point is, he probably thinks he’ll have an easier time dealing with Airia than with Master. What an opportunist.”

“Y-Yeah,” Garsh replied absentmindedly.

“What I don’t get is why ask Meraldia of all places for help?”

He shrugged his shoulders and said, “My guess is he heard that a certain went to Rolmund and replaced the emperor with a new empress that was pro-Meraldia.”

“That story has spread to other...