Chapter 331
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Chapter 331 – Reply
A rather unexpected proposal――a cooperative relationship with Demon King Miyu, one of the Thirteen Evil Stars and the administrator of Laplace.
Thinking of the benefits, I can come up with two right away.
1.) I’ll be able to have a private connection with Laplace’s administrator.
2.) The location. With Demon King Miyu, the ruler of the Nagano Prefecture, becoming a bulwark in the eastern direction, it will become a lot easier for me to launch invasions in the future.
The biggest issue when forming an alliance is always trust.
As a principle rule, demon kings always share a hostile relationship. Moreover, although it’s my first meeting with Demon King Miyu, we’re neighbors.
Hence, there’s no way that trust can be born between us.
What’s necessary in that case would be…?
Getting mutual benefit out of it, I guess. But, what is the benefit Demon King Miyu can get from allying up with me?
First, the location.
For example, if Demon King Miyu plans to start a war against Sati after the Demon King Carinval ends, having a non-aggression pact with the Aster Empire in the north would have a lot of significance.
And even if she doesn’t start a conflict with Sati, she still has the merit of being abloe to concentrate on invading eastwards once I take Gifu.
Hmm…yeah..it’s not bad, but…it’s still lacking conclusive evidence.
Calm down…think about it logically…
Remember what Demon King Miyu said…『permanent』, 『not yet』, 『the reason lies with your personality』, 『survival is the objective』――
――!
Were those possibly her true feelings? Did she tell me the true motive why she wants to form a cooperative relationship with me?
In order to achieve Demon King Miyu’s goal, power is indispensable. The power of Demon King Miyu――Secret――remains unclear. It’s not said whether she possess a strength befitting the title of Thirteen Evil Stars. That’s why she wants power. The power of having Creator Shion as backer.
Next, why did she come to me with this proposal at this time?
That’s because she wants to form a cooperative relationship on even standing. As long as the difference in power isn’t obvious, the side requesting an alliance easily ends up in the inferior position.
Therefore, she was only able to suggest a cooperative relationship on equal terms, now that I’m in a critical situation.
All of this is naturally just conjecture.
What I should consider next is an estimate on the damage I could suffer when I’m betrayed by Demon King Miyu after forming a cooperative relationship.
Previously, the pig tried to profit from me and the humans fighting each other and effectively decreasing each other’s forces. But, this time, the possibility for that is zero. After all, I’m going to enter the collaboration with Demon King Miyu in secret.
In that case, the other possible way of suffering damage would be a surprise attack.
However, being able to launch a surprise attack will be limited to one time. Even if she mobilizes all her troops and chooses the perfect timing, she’ll only be able to steal several sectors. Destroying me would be next to impossible.
It’d be a hard blow, but recovery would remain possible.
――!
The scariest possibility would be that, huh…? The reverse of what I simulated earlier. The case of Demon King Miyu collaborating with Sati to invade me.
Seeing how she is the administrator of Laplace, she’s able to secretly contact all Demon Kings participating on that forum.
However, even if she pulled that off, it’d definitely spell the end of the Upper Demon King Lounge. The value of that thread is pretty high. And that value is even higher, if you’re Laplace’s administrator.
As long as she isn’t quite an idiot――and Demon King Miyu isn’t one――she probably won’t choose to destroy the Upper Demon King Lounge out of her own volition.
With that said――
『Shion, have you made up your mind?』, Demon King Miyu asked as if having timed it.
“I think I will accept your proposal.”
I told her my verdict.
『Pheew…that’s great to hear. It takes a load off my mind. As a matter of fact, my confidence for this proposal to succeed was only 50%』
Unexpectedly, Demon King Miyu sighed in relief.
“So,we have now formed a cooperative relationship, but…are we going to prepare something that will serve as proof?”
『We won’t. I already told you before, but I’d like to keep our relationship a secret for a while』
“In short, it’s just a verbal promise, right?”
『Yes. Is there a problem with that? I believe you, Shion. Are you trusting me as well, Shion?』
“If I’m to be honest here, I still lack information to judge whether you are someone who can be trusted or not…would be my answer, I suppose.”
『Thank you for being honest with me. Because you’re like that, I trust you』
Demon King Miyu revealed a puppet-like smile, showing no emotions on her face at all.
“Thanks for the compliments. Anyway, moving on to the main subject…how are you going to help me out of my current predicament?”
There are plenty of other things I want to ask, but the current situation needs to be addressed urgently.
『Is it fine for me to interpret your predicament as your current situation where you’re receiving concentrated attacks by the humans?』
“Correct. If I were to mention other predicaments I can think of…it’d be my inability to read the true motive of the person with whom I formed a cooperative relationship.”
『I believe that will naturally resolve itself over time. Well then, as for the method to save yourself from the predicament you mentioned…how about I take over five of your domains, Shion?』
“Pardon?”
For her to start our relationship by demanding land…it seems like I made a mistake in choosing with whom to partner.
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