Ch.6262. The Duke

“I would like compensation for the losses suffered by me and my kind, Your Majesty.”

After the succubus Iclit made this plea, a chilly air flowed through the massive audience chamber.

She wasn’t making demands with her chin held high. Rather, she showed the utmost respect by kneeling politely and bowing her head to the floor.

No matter how unfair the situation was, she was facing the Demon Lord.

Iclit, merely a low-ranking succubus, was before a mighty being who could annihilate her with a single gesture.

There was nothing stopping him from punishing all the succubi who had contributed funds this time.

‘Logically speaking, harming us would be insane.’

Monsters who lived by feeding on human vitality in human territories. Though lacking in combat power, they had sufficient strategic value. Rejecting such resources would be foolish, but…

“Compensation, you say?”

At these words, Iclit decided to abandon her expectations of common sense.

The Demon Lord’s indifferent voice sounded like a rebuke: “Are you saying you’d sell your loyalty for money?”

‘Their way of thinking is completely different.’

The current Demon Lord was honestly somewhat passive in character. The type who let the Tetrad run wild individually.

However, the Demon Lord’s main forces were still intact, and power had actually become more concentrated in the Demon Lord’s hands. Though the Beast King’s loyalty was relatively weak, he had already lost many elites in conflicts with humans.

There was another member of the Tetrad, but Iclit had no expectations of him.

The Tetrad member serving as the Demon Lord’s chief of staff, who was standing beside him now, somehow had a face remarkably similar to the Demon Lord’s.

Dark skin with a purple tinge, goat horns, and a large build.

High-ranking demons generally looked similar, but even accounting for that, the resemblance was excessive.

Unlike the Demon Lord, whose face showed at least minimal intelligence, the chief of staff was just standing with folded arms, flaunting his ominous magical power. He looked ready to drive away the low-ranking demon who dared mention “compensation” in the royal presence.

“Can’t you get funds from humans?”

This was the ignorant remark thrown by the chief of staff.

As her hopes for compensation plummeted, shadows fell across Iclit’s eyes.

The thought that these were opponents with whom dialogue was impossible had crossed her mind, but she decided to say a few words for the sake of her kind. Perhaps they might throw her a few gold nuggets (though not that much), thinking her an impudent woman.

“…Your Majesty. The reason I stopped the operation you ordered…”

Iclit, with a half-resigned expression, tried to take all responsibility on herself. A poignant smile had somehow appeared at the corners of her mouth.

But the Demon Lord didn’t even give Iclit a chance to explain.

“No need to explain. It must be because you lack gold.”

“It’s not simply about gold…”

Before Iclit could respond, the Demon Lord showed unexpected behavior.

As he waved his hand dismissively, a chest filled with gold coins floated over to where Iclit was.

‘Huh? So suddenly?’

Naturally, these weren’t the gold coins currently circulating in the Empire.

They were coins issued by countries that had been annexed by the Empire over a hundred years ago, even mixed with ancient coins whose period of use was impossible to determine. Still, gold was gold, so they weren’t worthless, but it was rather awkward.

“Um.”

“Is it not enough?”

Soon after, several pieces of pure gold jewelry and ornaments additionally fell into Iclit’s possession.

These would be equally difficult to dispose of.

However, even accounting for the costs incurred in exchanging them for currency, it seemed they could more or less cover the losses. It would just take a long time.

“…Ha.”

Iclit let out a small laugh, momentarily forgetting that the Demon Lord was right in front of her.

To think she had been ready to risk her life for something that could be resolved so easily.

Still, she had achieved her basic objective. At least now she had something to tell the others who were probably still lamenting and whining. She actually had another goal, but it seemed better to give up on it.

‘This is good enough.’

Iclit showed the utmost respect once again.

But the Demon Lord’s business wasn’t finished yet.

“Wait a moment.”

The Demon Lord was now holding a “Cordana” in his hand.

It was one of the roughly 300 Cordana that Iclit and her kind had somehow managed to protect and bring to the Demonic Land. Some had been lost before they left the imperial capital, and more had been lost afterward.

Garbage purchased with the succubi’s blood money.

Gwon Heejin’s face was embossed on the surface of the coin. Since it had no face value, it couldn’t even be called currency, and with both sides being identical, it couldn’t even be used for heads or tails games.

A small, worthless piece of gold—that was what Cordana was now.

Yet the Demon Lord still seemed interested in Cordana.

Perhaps he believed that if he had known about Cordana a little earlier, he could have thrown humanity into a cauldron of chaos and then conquered them more easily.

“What is the value of this coin?”

“I’m not sure of the current market price, but the unit price I purchased at…”

“No, I’m asking about its intrinsic value.”

Intrinsic value?

Iclit tilted her head briefly, then quietly answered.

Compared to the weight of gold coins used by humans, each was worth about 90,000, and considering the minting costs, it would be even less valuable.

“And people traded these things at hundreds or thousands of times their value?”

Iclit felt awkward, worried that the Demon Lord might ask, “Do you know why humans did such a thing?”

Honestly, even Iclit had no way of knowing why humans had done this. Probably even the humans themselves couldn’t explain it clearly.

Fortunately, the Demon Lord didn’t seem interested in studying Cordana academically.

“We failed before due to insufficient preparation. But there must be a way to use this again. After that, we will strike at the humans.”

While she understood the desire to win without bloodshed, using Cordana, which had already hit rock bottom, would be difficult.

By the time Iclit left the exchange, Cordana’s price had already fallen to the 17 million range.

According to her kind who arrived in the Demonic Land after Iclit, rumors were circulating that Gwon Heejin’s execution date had been set, or that he was already dead.

‘He’s probably dead by now. The exchange itself might have closed.’

It would be unreasonable to try to raise the value of Cordana now, when it had fluctuated based on Gwon Heejin’s activities. Surely the Demon Lord wasn’t planning to issue a new form of Cordana in his own name.

“Um, Your Majesty. I’m sorry, but Cordana is already…”

Iclit, who was trying to offer advice while reading the situation, suddenly closed her mouth.

For some reason, scenes she had witnessed during her stay at the exchange came to mind.

Humans filling the exchange tightly, screaming and shoving each other.

Even in that jostling, eyes bloodshot with rage staring at the trading screens.

And nobles with expressions full of venom, taking turns venting their anger at the imprisoned Hero.

‘It was an insane sight.’

It was a scene that frightened even Iclit, a demon.

After all that chaos, would things have returned to normal just because some time had passed?

That was impossible. Having briefly dipped her toes into the Cordana market, she could somewhat understand the humans’ feelings.

Iclit carefully raised her upper body and fell into thought.

The thought crossed her mind that if she played her cards right, she might be able to gain recognition for her abilities from the Demon Lord, the pinnacle of all demons.

Just then, the Demon Lord provided some helpful information.

“Didn’t the Hero consecrate the Cordana?”

“Yes. According to the information I collected in a short time, it was to prevent counterfeiting. I heard that even priests, humans with magical aptitude, or humans who could use aura could identify them.”

“Yet I sense no holy power from it now.”

“…Ah.”

“It seems the Hero has died.”

It sounded like the consecration effect had disappeared with the Hero’s death.

This meant counterfeiting was now possible. They would need to replicate the complex facial embossing and attach convincing serial numbers, but it wasn’t impossible.

Of course, this was meaningless information. If Gwon Heejin was dead, Cordana was finished anyway.

‘Counterfeiting such garbage would be a waste of time and resources.’

But with a change in perspective, that might be a vulnerability worth exploiting, thought the succubus who had been burned by Cordana.

After pondering for a long time, Iclit calmly offered her suggestion. Forgetting that she was just a low-ranking demon, she had kept the Demon Lord waiting for over two hours.

“Your Majesty. What if you return these human treasures to the humans?”

Of course, she didn’t mean to simply return them; resources and efforts from the Demon Lord’s army would be involved.

But compared to the effects they could expect, it would be a minimal investment.

***

Ten days after Gwon Heejin’s execution.

The Court Ministry succeeded in detecting movements suspected to be machinations of the Demon Lord’s army.

News came that individuals had appeared who secretly approached the vassals or blood relatives of lords governing small territories, proposing: “We would like to purchase the Cordana held by your family at a high price.”

“They offered quite a large sum.”

Fortunately, among the nobles who received these strange proposals was a wizard who had graduated from the Academy.

“When caught, it turned out to be an incubus disguised as a human. Wasn’t this likely an attempt to shake up nobles who had suffered losses from Cordana?”

One amusing fact was that the majority of those targeted belonged to families that had never been involved with Cordana. Or had already disposed of them. Of course, the Demon Lord’s army couldn’t review each family’s Cordana holdings.

Still, now that the Demon Lord’s army had revealed their sinister intentions, Cordana couldn’t be left alone.

Eventually, the imperial palace decided to end Cordana’s life and collect and melt down all the Cordana in circulation. This was also a measure to discourage some investors who still couldn’t let go of their attachment.