The Kinton territory. The lord's office.
"I quit!"
Aura slammed her palm down on the desk, face utterly blank, and the Scales of Obedience sitting on it rocked from side to side.
Beside her, her adjutant Hermet wiped the sweat beading on his forehead.
"Lord Aura! Kinton can't do without you!"
"Then let me ask you this. What exactly have I done up to now?"
Aura snatched up the thick sheaf of documents and smacked it back down on the desk.
"Reviewing paperwork is your work, I only stamp and sign. Touring the territory is your work, I only come back once in a while to show my face. Military campaigns? It's peacetime, there's no call for them at all. The way I see it, you make a perfectly fine lord yourself."
"Ah, my lord, is this... boredom?"
Hermet scratched at his chin, a little sheepish.
"Kinton's more or less recovered by now, hasn't it?"
"It has, my lord."
"And the army? How many?"
"If we paid to hire mercenaries, we could reach perhaps half of what we once had. Somewhere between one and two thousand men. And it would collapse the finances we have only just managed to nurse back to health."
"And you call that recovered?"
"Kinton was in a wretched state to begin with. The previous lord was scum, plain and simple. At the very least, the people trust you now, my lord. You killed him, and you took the city back with the alliance."
Hermet kept his tone respectful while quietly studying Aura's reaction.
He knew her temperament well enough. If he painted the situation too brightly, she might start entertaining ideas about expanding the territory again, and the people of Kinton, who had already been driven from their homes once, could not afford another war before life here had truly improved.
Peace was a rare and precious thing. Hermet had no desire to gamble with it. Especially not now, with that person from Gaderia standing behind Kinton.
The former lord's land seizures and exploitation, the current lord's campaigns and plunder, Hermet rejected both alike.
Fortunately, the Demon Race seemed to think differently from Humans.
Aura was careless in the broad strokes. She harbored no suspicion toward lesser beings who posed no threat to her, and even when lies were mixed in, so long as they were concealed well enough, she would never go digging for the truth on her own.
"Fine, then I'll just go knock over a few Central Lands countries by myself."
"Absolutely not, Lord Aura! Have you forgotten the Continental Mages' Association? That Serie is someone even Lady Nanoda treats with caution!"
"Haaah."
An elf out of the Mythical Era. Aura knew perfectly well she was probably no match.
"Why not go off and train for a while? Leave things here to me."
"So how much longer do I have to sit here?"
"Only until these are signed and sealed. That covers this month's share, and there are no major festivals coming up that require the lord to appear. You can leave in two days, my lord."
Hermet glanced at the documents on the desk, stacked a little higher than the tips of Aura's horns.
...
That night, having burned through the paperwork at record speed, Aura sank into a deep, unaccountably heavy sleep.
In the dream, Aura was back in the days when she commanded the Headless Army.
On learning that the Hero Himmel had died, she threw her entire force forward at once and seized the domain of a Human knight-noble.
After that, Lord Aura marched her army north, pressing forward without pause, winning battle after battle, her forces swelling all the while.
Her subordinate Linie plucked a special, many-colored apple for her.
The moment she ate it, Lord Aura's Mana erupted, climbing to a world-class level. The pillar of Mana light was vast enough to blanket everything the eye could see.
Macht of the Golden Land bowed before the sheer might of her Mana and became her most faithful servant.
And then Lord Aura abruptly attained enlightenment in Mana Rotation and the Cosmic Origin!
And so it was.
With one million horsepower of Mana Rotation, she flattened the entire Northern Empire in a single instant, ending the reign of the Human empire that had stood unshaken since the age of war.
And founded the Great Aura Empire!
From that day the Demon Race of the Northern lands hailed Aura as the new Demon King. No. As Demon Emperor!
Enthroned, Lord Aura did not stop there.
She dug the Great Demon Jane out of whatever corner she had been hiding in and set her to governing the Northern lands for the time being, while she herself led the army south.
Along the way she butchered a kinsman who dared stand in her path in the Central Lands, an eyesore of a Great Demon named Nofi.
The Dwarf warrior from the Hero's Party who leapt out at her, along with his apprentice, were snuffed out between Aura's fingers.
And Serie, hailed as the legendary Great Mage, lost her duel against an Aura who had reached the highest realm of Mana Rotation. Thoroughly convinced, she signed a contract of the Magic of Obedience and became Aura's foot-licking servant. In recognition of Serie's loyalty, Aura left her to administer the Central Lands in her stead.
Lord Aura's final objective was to destroy the last sanctuary of Humans, the Southern Lands and the kingdom that had sent forth the Hero!
While freeing the Sage of Corruption, Qual, she ran into interference from a terrifying White-haired Elf.
After she beat the White-haired Elf's Human disciple to death, the White-haired Elf suddenly surged past her limits, and with her magic she actually grazed Aura's neck!
No blood was drawn, but for Lord Aura it was an unbearable disgrace!
Mana Rotation, on the spot. Everything except Aura herself — the White-haired Elf, the petrified Qual, and every last thing around them — was reduced to drifting ash!
After that Aura had no rival left, and she took the Southern Kingdom without meeting a single obstacle.
She scrawled graffiti over the Goddess's statue, then tore down the Goddess's Order, burned every Scripture, and buried alive every Human who carried Holy Power.
She dug up the Hero's grave, too, and scattered his bones to the wind.
With that, the great war between Humans and the Demon Race ended for good. Dwarves and elves, cowed by the Demon Emperor's majesty, submitted one after another.
Every race that existed in this world became the plaything of Demon Emperor Aura.
Truly a joyous thing, a joyous thing indeed.
When she woke, it was already morning.
Wiping the drool from the corner of her mouth, ambition swelling and spirits high, Aura left the Kinton territory.
Outside the gate, she looked left, then right.
At last she made up her mind.
"I'll swing by Gaderia first."
Nanoda, who had been planning to head out and hunt down something to eat, was caught by a pitiful, clinging Jane.
So Nanoda had no choice but to sit and wait for Linie to come home, and to sample hell alongside the poor little thing beside her.
But the presence registering in her Mana Perception was not the one she expected.
A creak. The sound of the front door opening.
Jane, who had been reading, clutched her head, certain Linie was back from the market.
When she saw the familiar silhouette in the doorway, Nanoda, who had been draped over the dining table, flickered forward to meet it with something close to excitement.
Her savior had arrived.
She clasped Aura's warm little hand, her voice earnest and full of feeling.
"Aura! You're finally back... I've missed your cooking so much, Aura."
Aura, still floating in last night's fantasy of world conquest, watched the images in her skull shatter into the memory of being utterly dominated by Nanoda, that night when every scrap of her power was stripped away.
"Ahaha... ahahahaha, I'll go make dinner right now."
Dragging out a stiff, overblown smile, Aura walked meekly into the kitchen.
She decided to shelve the dream of escaping Nanoda, becoming Demon King and conquering the world. At least until Nanoda was gone for good.
____
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