"...The two of you were summoned here because you must now actively support me, in accordance with matrimonial laws, now that you are publicly connected to the royal family," I say to Vivienne and Ecatherine, who are bowing in the throne room.

"I have already moved part of my troops to the border as you requested, Demon King," Ecatherine says in her serious tone.

"Excellent, it's good to see you being proactive about this," I say while looking at Vivienne. She meets my gaze, and I see her clenching her jaw so hard I can hear a metallic grinding sound.

"I... am... already... sending... what... was... requested," she says rigidly and haltingly, as if the very notion is absurd and painful for her.

"Don't be so stingy, Vivienne. This is nothing compared to what you have. Furthermore, you will have to provide other support due to the war situation, which is escalating rapidly," I tell her with severity.

"..."

"Demon King, I believe... you don't want to make enemies of the dragons, do you?" she says, boldly looking me directly in the eyes.

"Is that a threat?" I ask, releasing my magic throughout the room. The pillars supporting the ceiling begin to crack.

"A threat? I would never threaten the great Demon King... It is a warning. If you try to take from us, we will retaliate. We are not your servants, and you know this. You cannot give us orders," she says, confronting me.

"We dragons are free from decisions made by you. We follow only our own desire for accumulation, and if you cannot provide what we want, you have no right to try and command us."

"...And don't think for a moment that using my daughter as a bargaining chip would work. Even if Evelyn were to die, I couldn't care less, so long as it doesn't affect everything I have accumulated over my hundreds of years."

"I am quite fond of my daughter; she is amusing. But I know how to separate personal matters from what is important for my existence."

"Evelyn is not an accumulative asset, and therefore she is outside of any negotiation. If you want the dragons' help, you must pay appropriately with wealth, valuables, or anything we wish to hoard at the moment," she speaks with a courage that makes me smirk derisively.

"It seems the dragons are growing arrogant. Do you think I cannot wipe you all out single-handedly?" I ask. I know full well how strong dragons are, but I am perfectly capable of ending them all.

"I know you can. But tell me, Demon King, can you kill every last dragon before we destroy 70% of the entire continent? I don't think even you are willing to sacrifice so much just to punish us with death."

"Do not forget the specialty of dragons. When it comes to large-scale magic, no type of demon surpasses our talent and knowledge. We can destroy every kingdom and resource you need for this war, and doing so would shatter your chances of actively waging war against the angels," she is completely right.

It really isn't worth the risk and the losses. I could indeed kill them all, but not instantaneously, and not before they cause incalculable damage.

'Greedy bitch... This is why I hate the high-ranking races.' The high-ranking races know I can't simply destroy them without them ruining my plans, which is why they are so bold.

And it's worse when the specific race is "united." Dragons are irritatingly united with one another, not out of affection, trust, or any emotions that make them protective.

They are united against threats because if a threat steals from one dragon, the others feel threatened. To protect their own resources, they band together to wreak havoc.

It happened in the past, about 13,000 years ago, during the time of another Demon King. He killed and stole everything from an important dragon, and in return, a thousand dragons united and annihilated 29% of the demon population, destroyed 210 cities, and collapsed 7 kingdoms in just two days before stopping and returning to their homes.

They did it as a "warning" that they hate being robbed, and that any thief would pay a terrible price. Since Vivienne is an important noble, if she were to be "robbed," obviously many dragons would become active in a way that is bad for me.

"Do not worry, Vivienne. I am not interested in your gold, or whatever resources you are hoarding. What interests me is primarily soldiers. Gold alone cannot fight battles for me." When I say this, Vivienne seems to calm down.

I suppose demanding money from her for the marriage has made her skittish about me taking more of her resources, but I truly don't care much about her riches as long as she provides me with soldiers.

"Demon King, my armies are relatively small. I cannot provide many troops since I need them in my own territory, but I can send about 20% of them and 30% of the reserve troops I don't care if they die... but armor, weapons, and supplies are your responsibility."

"I will send them with just the clothes on their backs and nothing more," she says, already trying her utmost not to send any resources.

'I suppose that's enough. It's not like I expected much more from them beyond support in case of an emergency.' What really matters to me in this sense is Ecatherine, because Ecatherine is a noble focused on warfare and military might.

"That will suffice, although I am relatively willing to pay generously for strong dragons participating directly." When I say this, her eyes shine with poorly disguised greed.

"But we will see about that later. Now, Ecatherine, tell me your side," I ask, ignoring Vivienne.

"I have sent 400,000 soldiers to you. Among them are 200,000 military Ghouls, which are excellent troops since they require no supplies, can feed on fallen enemies and allies on the battlefield, feel no pain, and require no rest."

"I have also sent 50,000 resources, ranging from weapons and armor to basic military-use relics. Additionally, I have sent 20 tons of common military provisions for your troops," she says this and falls silent.

'Much more than I expected... and well beyond what I asked for... but this will help immensely. With this, I can begin focusing on means to mass-move to the angelic continent...' I am satisfied with this.

"That is excellent... Ecatherine, I would like your servants to also help mine develop special boats... We need to cross the ocean, and for that, we will need large, robust ships with defensive magic strong enough to repel any sea monster."

"We also need these ships to be easy to build and mass-producible. Furthermore, they will need to be fast, although we can use magic to accelerate their movement."

"Would you be willing to participate in my military research? The rewards for this will vary depending on your contribution, but you can expect generous compensation..."

"Vivienne, I also extend the same proposal to you, to aid in the advancement of military research. However, if you decide to participate, your focus, instead of ships, would be on weapons and vehicles for aerial mobility, considering that as dragons you are more specialized in long-range, high-speed flight."

"..." They both fall silent for a moment. Both seem to be thinking about how much they can gain from this; after all, they are still nobles, and the more influence, the better.

"Demon King, I will send researchers, alchemists, engineers, and blacksmiths to the castle within one month for this purpose," Ecatherine quickly accepts, and soon Vivienne also speaks.

"...I still need time to think, Demon King. It seems great to gain more things, but I have many affairs to manage, and I am not the representative of the dragons."

"Unlike Ecatherine, whose word is absolute for the ghouls, I am merely a noble... It is true that I am very important among dragons, but my words do not control the opinions of others. So, I need to bring this proposal to the other dragons for a decision." When she stops speaking, I begin to talk.

"Very well. I will give you two months to get this organized. I plan to attack the angelic continent within a maximum of five years, so when everything is ready, you will have roughly four years to achieve these advancements."

"Now you may go. I need to deal with some of my generals who have reported suspicious sightings of angels patrolling the western coast of the continent." The angels seem to be becoming irritatingly more active recently.

Ever since the heroine Grace arrived, it seems the angels have been trying to incite humans to see us as a threat, especially considering they tried to poison Grace with a venom that doesn't work on demons.

"Understood..." The two rise and begin to leave as I look at the ceiling, thinking about what to do with the angels.

'I need to make these extra angels disappear...' More and more, I am having to expend resources to deal with them. Soon, the majority of my children will need to actively participate in the war.

Most of them do participate currently, but never actively. They only participate actively when I am punishing them for some mistake or similar transgression.

'Evelyn, Esther, Marie, and Augustus... are the ones who participate the least actively in the war... however, Esther has very high contributions, being the one who has helped the most so far...' I think about them.

So far, the order of children who have contributed the most to the war is Esther, Laplace, Lucien, Marie, Augustus, and finally Evelyn, who has zero contributions to the war.

Marie and Augustus only have contributions because they were forced to go to war as punishment.

"How wonderful it would be if Esther participated actively in the war..." She is strong and intelligent; it would be equivalent to having a high-ranking general overseeing a front, which would be a great help. But she prefers to keep her true power hidden.

'For now, I can leave things as they are, but soon I will have to decide which children will have to actively assist on the battlefields...' Because of the competition for the throne, I cannot simply send all of them to war at the same time, so I will leave the planning for that for the future.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.