A Legendary Demon Lord"s Plan
The dwarves had gathered. And I decided to begin before they were all too drunk.
"The plan I am about to explain to you all is very dangerous. And it will be difficult. If even one of you turns out to be a coward, then it could all fall apart. Those of you who cannot overcome fear, leave now."
That was how I started. But the dwarves were known for their bravery, and not a single one of them left here.
"Very well. It seems that no dwarves are cowards."
Understanding this, I raised my own estimate of the plans success rate.
From fifty to seventy percent.
I looked towards Gottlieb and asked for a map of these mines.
He pulled one out of his pocket.
However, a young dwarf came forward and stopped him.
"Chief, that is a treasured map and we are forbidden from showing it to any who are not dwarves. Do you really mean to show it one who we have only just met?"
"It is fine. I have watched this young Demon Lord carefully ever since we met. He had the courage to face Eligos"s minions. I saw the sadness in his eyes when defeating the animated corpses of our friends. And he was kind enough to share his food with our children. Perhaps he is the legendary Demon King."
Well, it was actually Eve who had given them the cookies.
As I mused on this, Eve questioned the chief.
"And what is this "legendary Demon Lord" you speak of?"
"A Demon Lord who exists in our oral traditions. He would appear in black clothing. A Demon Lord with a gentle heart. A king among kings.
He would be a blessing to not just the dwarves, but all races."
He said.
Eve listened to this and said,
"Very good, master."
Saint Jeanne said,
"Impressive, Demon Lord."
Their pa.s.sionate eyes were directed towards me. It seemed like it would be rather callous to point out here, that nearly all Demon Lords wore black. So I decided to ignore it.
I did not think it was talking about me, but I did aspire to be a Demon Lord that the dwarves trusted.
I thought this as I looked at the map of the mines.
There were complicated and winding tunnels both narrow and wide.
I searched for a particularly open area.
Once I had found it, I pointed at the spot.
"Chief Gottlieb. Is this area very large?"
"It is certainly wide, but otherwise, no."
"That is perfect then. This will be our battlefield."
"Preposterous. This is a dead end. We shall be tapped. We will not be able to escape."
"Have you ever heard the words, "burn one"s boats"?"
"I have. So you want us to fight till the death?"
"No, I am not quite that villainous. This plan is dangerous, but if we succeed, most of us should be alive by the end of it."
"I do not understand. Sharltar has over one hundred men."
"We"ll catch them all at once. But first, you must gather your best mine workers and have them dig a hole."
"A pitfall? Sharltar is too careful for such a thing to work."
"I wouldn"t try something so childish as that."
I had a flashback of my battle with Sabnac, but kept quiet about it.
"Additionally, I want you to bring all of the gun powder you have here. It should be set here and here."
I pointed at the map.
"I see. Very well! So you are going to bring them all down here and kill them with an explosion."
"Exactly. They will regret everything they did as they are buried in the rubble."
"It is a good plan. But igniting so much gunpowder will be sure to kill whoever has the job of doing it."
His expression grew dark, but I told him not to worry.
"All is fine. I will be lighting the fuse. No dwarves will die."
"No! You will do it yourself, Demon Lord?"
Eve now looked at me with surprise.
"Master! You must not! You are too valuable to fall in a place like this."
"Oh, I"m not going to fall here. I am a Sorcerer, you know? I will teleport as soon as the fuse has been lit."
"I see, of course. So you do not have to stay near the explosives when it goes off."
"I can teleport immediately if it is within fifty meters."
"Then you should be safe."
The dwarven chief a.s.sured me of this, but Eve was still not satisfied.
However, Jeanne seemed to take a liking to this plan and she placed a hand on Eve"s shoulder.
"Maid. Do you not trust your Demon Lord? Surely he will not make a mess of it. There are times when a good woman must believe in a man and be silent."
Eve turned to her with an angry expression that suggested she had no intention of being lectured on being a good woman by such a person. However, she did keep quiet after that.
In fact, she stopped giving her opinions on my plan completely.
"…Very well. We are decided then. Now the only thing left to do is to act. How long will it take the dwarf miners to dig the tunnel? Gottlieb."
"The tunnel we will use to escape? Indeed…"
The chief showed me three fingers.
"Three days. That is faster than I expected."
"Hardly. I meant to tell you that it would be thirty hours."
"Did you say thirty hours?"
I cried with surprise.
"We do not have much food left. And here you have given us a most promising plan. We intend to make it happen."
His words and expression were filled with a sense of n.o.bility.
I wanted to tell him that there was no need to force the impossible, but I swallowed the urge.
This Chief Gottlieb was brilliant. And he immediately began to draw on the map and make preparations.
He was not only the chief of the dwarves but a great technician.
I was sure of it now, and believed they would succeed in digging the tunnel.
In that case, what I had to do was help the troops practice luring Eligos"s men out here.
As the best miners would be digging tunnels, it would be the blacksmiths and farmers who I would be working with.
They were not as strong, but they were still dwarves.
I took the dwarves with me and went to the training ground in the underground city.
Here, I briefly taught them to use spears and swords.
Well, I wasn"t too great with them myself, so it was mainly Saint Jeanne who taught them.
She was the Hero who helped bring the Hundred Years War to an end.
She was a woman, but certainly better for the job than me.
I watched as she taught the dwarves how to fight, her blonde hair flowing.
She laughed and said to me,
"I am the child of a farmer. I know how strong they can be. With a little training, they will be quite good with a spear."
Apparently, she had formed a farmers troop when she had been fighting in France.
That was comforting to know.
And so I left everything to the beautiful Saint and caught a wild rat that had been scurrying about.
"Do you mean to eat it…?"
Jeanne asked with narrowed eyebrows. Of course, I would not.
I would use it as a familiar.
Know yourself as well as your enemy.
We knew what we would do now, and so I wanted to know a little more information about Eligos"s army.
Gottlieb had said that there were more than one hundred, but there was a ma.s.sive difference in one hundred demons and one hundred zombies.
And I also wanted to know more about this Sharltar who led them.
He was the lieutenant who was responsible for leading the raids against the dwarves.
A Necromancer who killed the dwarves and turned them into zombies.
He must have the most cunning face.
Somehow, I was sure of it.