Previously
Ariella joins a meeting with Ludvic and his three core subordinates: Olken, Bivar, and Richmond. Bivar, a vampire, openly insults Ariella's status and competence, but she skillfully counters his verbal attacks by framing his insults as a slight against Ludvic's own judgment.
Bivar never imagined those words would be directed at him, and he stood blinking in stunned silence for several seconds.
Ariella, on the other hand, looked entirely calm and composed, in sharp contrast to Bivar’s face, which seemed ready to burst.
“How dare you have the insolence to speak such…!”
“Stop interrupting. I haven’t finished yet.”
Ariella said this while looking at him with a slanted, mocking gaze.
“Is it a habit of yours to interrupt people? Just moments ago, you interrupted the King while he was speaking. Do you think you’re something grand?”
At that, Bivar cried out, pleading with the Demon King,
“Your Majesty! Listen to what this arrogant creature is saying! She is insulting the entire territory!”
“You were the one who insulted first. I didn’t come here on my own; the King invited me, and he ordered me to sit. Those were royal orders. As for you, who do you think you are to oppose and dismiss the King’s word? Don’t you know your place?”
“You insignificant humans—”
“Since you brought up humans, let me tell you something. In the human realm, do you know what conduct like yours toward a king is called? High treason. Yes, a traitor.”
She then raised her hand and drew it across her neck, as if signaling that Bivar’s head could roll at any moment.
“Enough!”
Ludvic’s voice finally intervened, arriving late. He had spoken only after listening for a long time as Ariella attacked and tore Bivar apart.
‘What a strange woman.’
This was the Demon King’s castle. On top of that, look at who was present: a vampire, a werewolf, a skeleton, and even the Demon King himself.
Any ordinary human would have had a fit the moment they stepped into this room. But what about this woman?
Not only had she not fainted, she had walked in with confident strides and sat down without hesitation. More than that, she wasn’t even fazed before these high-ranking demons; instead, she snapped back at them as though she were about to devour them whole.
‘Strange… but she’ll be useful.’
Ludvic spoke in a firm voice laden with authority,
“Bivar! I have made my decision. It is final!”
With Ludvic putting his foot down like that, none of his subordinates dared object any further.
And so, the territory administration meeting began with five people in attendance, including Ariella.
The first issue brought to the table was the rising Orc raids within the territory.
“Our soldier count is disastrously low!”
Olken shouted enthusiastically.
“We must recruit more troops! And we need more weapons too!”
Bivar shook his head.
“There’s no one even to work the fields, so how can we recruit soldiers?”
“What about hiring from outside the territory?”
“There isn’t enough money.”
Then Richmond spoke up.
“What do you think of the proposal I mentioned earlier?”
“Which proposal? Do you mean… that idea you pitched about using zombies as a guard force?”
Richmond nodded. Bivar scowled as though it were utterly absurd.
“The stench of rot will spread across the whole territory. They’ll scatter entrails and rotting flesh everywhere.”
Even Olken voiced his objection to the idea.
“Grrr! Zombies are far too weak. They’d drop instantly against a trained Orc.”
“If we don’t have the money to recruit new soldiers and you refuse to use zombies… then we must repair the ramparts.”
“And where are we going to get that money?”
“We must raise taxes on the residents.”
“What are you saying! The people don’t even have enough to eat as it is…”
The session dragged on like an endless whirlpool without any clear solution. Ariella silently absorbed the whole atmosphere and pursed her lips inward.
‘What a mess!’
Every time Olken or Richmond proposed a solution, Bivar, the finance officer, immediately shot it down.
The reason was obvious.
‘In the end, money is the root of the problem.’
Yet if the situation continued without any investment, the residents’ lives would only become more miserable.
On top of that, the incessant Orc raids were a serious crisis. The Kobold farmers would lose their will to work, and eventually, their motivation to settle here would vanish completely, driving them to flee to other territories.
“Ariella.”
The Demon King called out to her as he listened to the haphazard debate among his subordinates. All three stopped talking at the exact same moment.
“What do you think?”
Ludvic looked at her with a deeply meaningful gaze.
‘Just as I thought, this was what you had in mind?’
When they first met, he had asked her whether she had ever run a nation before.
And having arrived in the demon realm, it turned out that the situation was going from bad to worse—from financial troubles to poor security, with his subordinates unable to agree on anything.
Clearly, this novice Demon King was struggling without any way out.
‘So you set the stage for me and want me to prove my worth, is that it? Was that your goal with the contract all along?’
Ariella did not look away from Ludvic. Their eyes met across the open space.
‘Still, this looks entertaining. After all, I have to do this if I want to survive… even though I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve been swindled a bit.’
Ariella offered a faint smile.
‘If that’s what you want, I’ll live up to your expectations. But later on… I’m getting every single thing I’m owed. That’s how contracts work, after all.’
Ariella smoothed her expression and answered. The response was already clear in her mind.
“First, we need to examine the ledgers, don’t we?”
Silence fell over the council chamber.
· · ·
“The ledgers? What ledgers?”
“Oh, quite interesting.”
The three subordinates showed completely different reactions. Ariella continued speaking as she watched each of their faces.
“Ultimately, there are plenty of spending avenues, but no actual source of revenue, right? If we keep having these theoretical debates across a table, we won’t get anywhere.”
She murmured inwardly,
‘More accurately, the problem isn’t that the territory has no money, but that there are too many thieves inside it.’
At that, Bivar jumped up and protested with bulging eyes, pointing to the papers spread out across the table.
“If it’s figures you’re looking for, they’re right here! Everything regarding the current available budget in the Demon King’s castle is written down in full…!”
Ariella pressed her words with even greater force.
“I don’t want vague numbers like these! We need detailed, thoroughly broken-down records.”
“What?”
“This paper says the maintenance expenses for the territory amount to one hundred thousand Ciel per month. But what exactly is being maintained? By whom? And by what method is this maintenance being carried out?”
Ariella recalled the state of the territory she had seen yesterday, as well as the market prices and currency circulating in the demon realm that Groib had explained to her.
If that money were genuinely being spent as written, the territory wouldn’t be in such a pitiful state.
“Th-That’s because…!”
Bivar couldn’t formulate an immediate response.
“The reason this discussion keeps spinning in circles without any progress is that we’re dealing with nothing but massive, vague figures like these.”
That was why things had to be broken down meticulously, like an autopsy.
“We need to find out whether there really are no additional sources of revenue, and whether the currently available funds are being spent properly and effectively. Let’s count every last coin, and then decide our next move.”
Richmond chimed in,
“Does this mean the contractor will inspect this territory’s account ledgers herself?”
“Of course.”
“Unacceptable!”
Bivar roared in fury, rising violently from his seat.
“The account ledgers of the Demon King’s castle are kept strictly confidential! How can we hand them over to an outsider like you?!”
Richmond wagged his skeletal index finger left and right.
“More precisely, she is no longer an outsider. She is contracted to the Demon King.”
“Still, she isn’t even from the demon realm! She just arrived, so by what right does she handle official documents?!”
Ariella replied in a calm yet sharp voice,
“On the contrary, being from outside this realm means I can review the ledgers without any bias or personal interest. Think of it as… an ‘external audit,’ if you will.”
“And why should I ever allow someone like you to audit me?!”
His true colors had finally surfaced.
Ariella had a distinct feeling. That pale face… was hiding something filthy!
She rose from her seat without backing down.
“If you were in your right mind, cooperating would be second nature! The pillars of the state are crumbling, so do you actually intend to fix them?”
She raised her finger and pointed at Bivar as if stabbing him with it.
“You claim there isn’t even food to relieve the starving residents of this territory! Now we want to know why, yet you refuse to show the account ledgers that might hold the answer? If this isn’t dereliction of duty and obstruction of official business, then what is it?”
“D-Dereliction of duty? Obstruction of business?”
“In the town where I grew up, if administrators neglect their duties, it’s considered breach of trust and they’re severely punished. They were flogged, exiled, or thrown into prison. Don’t such laws exist in the demon realm?”
At that moment,
· · ·
Ariella felt a sudden shift in the room’s atmosphere.
‘This bastard?’
Her gaze sharpened.
Wrrroooom—!
A potent wave of energy surged around Bivar.
‘Is he trying to suppress me with magical power?’
END