BROTHERS
Dragging Bloe by the back of the collar, I quickly stride toward my private room in the Demon Lord’s castle, where I often spend my nights.
As the head of a dukedom, I am reasonably well trained, but my stats cannot compare to Bloe’s, since he’s led armies into real battle.
Which means it would be an easy task for him to escape my grasp if he wished, so the fact that he makes no effort to resist means he must recognize his own failure.
Ideally, I would like him to repent for his actions and make a heartfelt declaration of loyalty to the Demon Lord, but I have known him long enough to be painfully aware that he will do no such thing.
When we reach my room, I fling the door open and shove Bloe inside.
Then I follow him in and slam it shut behind me.
If anyone else was here, they would undoubtedly be surprised to see such a different side of me.
I make a point of interacting with everyone but my closest friends and family as politely as possible.
Normally, I would never even raise my voice, never mind move with such violence.
Fortunately, since we made it here without running into anyone else, my image is still intact. Hopefully.
I took the longest route possible from the meeting room to this location in order to avoid the busiest areas, but it was still a stroke of luck that we didn’t encounter anyone at all.
If someone saw me like this, I’m sure word would be all over the castle by tomorrow.
And it’s even more imperative that no one hears the conversation we’re about to have.
So much so that any mere rumors about me would be insignificant by comparison.
But in my private room, with no one else around, we should be able to speak freely.
“Brother…”
Bloe turns around to look at me with a miserable expression.
I promptly punch him in the face with all my strength.
“OOF!”
Bloe staggers back a step, but he doesn’t fall.
He is quite strong, after all. I spend far more time at the desk than on the battlefield, so even my strongest punch won’t cause him much pain, given the difference in our stats.
If anything, it’s my hand that hurts from punching him.
But that’s the least of my worries right now.
“You absolute moron!”
I grab Bloe’s collar with my still-throbbing hand.
“Do you have any idea what position you’ve just put yourself in?!”
“Uhhh, I…”
“You do, don’t you?! Don’t you dare tell me you don’t! You’ve practically wrapped yourself in the colors of a traitor! If you make one wrong move, it’ll be your head on the chopping block!”
“Brother, I—”
“You didn’t mean to. Is that what you’re going to say?! You idiot! Your feelings aren’t important right now! You were already on the verge of being a symbol of anti-demon-lord sentiment thanks to the way you’ve acted all this time! Nobody else knows what you might be thinking or feeling on the inside, you know. That’s why I kept telling you to change your attitude!”
Over and over, every time I saw him, I gave him the same warning.
He refused to listen, stubbornly holding a grudge against the Demon Lord, and now he’s reaping his reward.
I roughly let go of his collar, collapsing into a chair.
Bloe stands stock-still, as if at a total loss.
“Why didn’t you just execute Warkis like she asked?”
I know full well that Bloe could do no such thing, but the question spills out anyway.
Yes, I understand.
That Bloe sympathized with Warkis’s declarations and saw him as a comrade.
That they spent many years side by side, leading their respective armies together.
They were more than comrades. They were friends. It’s only natural that he would hesitate when suddenly ordered to put him to death.
And yet, if he had only acted as he was told, things never would’ve deteriorated this badly.
“Brother, I…I couldn’t do it.”
“Right. I figured as much.”
The Demon Lord knew that full well when she gave him that order.
She wanted to make Bloe her next sacrifice.
No matter what the Demon Lord’s policies might be, the majority will never accept her.
So sooner or later, someone was bound to raise the banner of revolt against her.
Warkis just happened to step into the shooting gallery first.
He was a straightforward man, entirely too simple.
That was why he was manipulated and used as the figurehead of the rebel army.
And now Bloe is going to be next.
“Bloe, you’re at the top of the list of the Demon Lord’s dissenters now. How you actually feel isn’t relevant anymore. Even if it wasn’t your intention, rebels will start to gather around you. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“…Yeah.”
It’s too late to stop this now.
He’s been put in charge of the Seventh Army—the former rebel army—and he’s already made it clear to everyone that he’s not fond of the Demon Lord, either.
That meeting sealed his fate.
Thanks to Warkis’s actions, we were able to avoid the worst-case scenario, but it’s still evident that Bloe intended to disobey the Demon Lord’s order to execute him.
This colossal failure isn’t merely a refusal to follow orders; it’s also tantamount to a declaration that he sides with the rebel army.
I’m sure the other commanders saw it that way, and the Demon Lord seemed to only encourage that interpretation.
Yes, that’s right.
That meeting was a setup.
It was all to establish Bloe as the next anti-demon-lord rebel leader.
There was at least one other commander who really was working with Warkis.
A traitor who put Warkis at the front of the rebellion, supported him from behind the scenes, and was careful not to leave behind any concrete proof.
The real purpose of the meeting was for the Demon Lord to indicate to that commander, or commanders, that Bloe is Warkis’s successor.
Whether Bloe actually intends to rebel or not, other rebel forces will begin to flock to his banner.
The Demon Lord set it up that way.
Because it makes things easier for her to deal with.
“Listen carefully. You only have one option now. Find a way to take control of these rebel forces and ensure that they do not revolt. As soon as you fail to contain them, it’ll be your head. And not just you. This time, there’s sure to be a serious purge.”
Bloe gulps, as if he finally understands the position he’s in, as well as the immense weight of his failure.
“Why…? How did it come to this?”
That’s what I’d like to know.
But there really was no way to avoid this outcome.
Bloe was too convenient a scapegoat for the Demon Lord.
Since he made no effort to hide his animosity toward the Demon Lord, it was all too easy to arrange for him to stand at the front of the rebellion against her.
Even though he never actually rebelled against her. Even though he followed her orders, however reluctantly.
He’s the perfect person to serve as the new figurehead of the rebellion. He’s also the best candidate when it comes to forcing someone to keep them in check.
But the key issue here is that the Demon Lord isn’t actually expecting him to succeed at that for long.
If he can, that’s great for her, but it’s no skin off her back if he fails, either.
Then she can just wipe out all the rebel forces in one fell swoop.
Either way, the Demon Lord comes out on top.
If Bloe succeeds, she doesn’t have to purge valuable soldiers, and if he fails, she can get rid of all her dissenters at once.
Whereas Bloe is stuck between a rock and a hard place, trying to keep the rebels in check while also dutifully obeying the Demon Lord.
If he makes one misstep, he’ll plummet off the tightrope and into the abyss. But he has to make it all the way across against all odds in order to live.
I know he made this bed for himself with his constant attitude, but still—why did it have to come to this?!
“Hey, Brother. Is that really the only way?”
“Bloe. Don’t say another word. Don’t even think it.”
I know exactly what he’s getting at.
No doubt he’s wondering if he couldn’t just become the rebel leader for real and overthrow the Demon Lord.
But if it were that easy, we wouldn’t be in such dire straits.
“I’ve told you this countless times. And I’ll continue to do so until you finally understand. You do not stand a chance of defeating the Demon Lord. If I may be blunt, even attempting to fight her would be nothing short of suicide.”
Bloe’s face sours, as if he can’t accept the finality of my statement.
But whether he accepts it or not, it’s the absolute truth.
Surely, Bloe must at least realize that the Demon Lord is no ordinary person.
I’m sure it’s still hard to believe.
It must be dawning on him by now that even if he managed to unite every living demon under one banner, he still wouldn’t have the manpower needed to take her down.
I might not have believed it, either, if I hadn’t witnessed her power with my own eyes.
No, in fact, I’m sure I wouldn’t believe it.
How could anyone accept such a preposterous idea?
“Bloe. What’s the single strongest monster you’ve ever encountered?”
Bloe looks perplexed by my sudden change of subject, but he thinks about it for a moment and responds.
“In a swarm, it’s definitely anogratches, but if we’re talking a single monster, probably the obrock or the deloombeik.”
The anogratch is a monster that lives in the Mystic Mountains.
Also known as “revenge monkeys,” they move in large packs. As the name implies, if a single member of their pack is killed, they’ll seek revenge.
Even if it means their entire pack will be wiped out in the attempt.
Killing even one anogratch can rapidly develop into a disaster.
If you fight off the swarm that comes after you, that means it becomes necessary to fight even more anogratches. This starts another chain of vengeful rage, and it’ll continue until all the anogratches in the swarm are dead.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the anogratches periodically increase their numbers and descend from the Mystic Mountains on a rampage.
Each time they stampede like this, we have to send out whole armies to deal with them.
In that sense, they’re more dangerous than any other monster in the demon territory.
The other monsters he mentioned, the obrock and the deloombeik, are a giant bird and a giant beast respectively.
Neither of them has any special abilities, but they move surprisingly quickly for their massive bulk and can easily crush their enemies beneath them.
They are monsters of pure and simple strength, but as such, it is easy enough to deal with them.
They’re certainly stronger than anogratches individually, but the real threat of the anogratch lies in the swarm.
Overall, anogratches are definitely the larger threat.
“Would you be able to defeat an obrock or a deloombeik single-handedly?”
“That depends. If I had time to prepare and lay traps and all that, I think I could do it. It’d still be life-and-death, though.”
Despite this disclaimer, he looks fairly confident that he could do it.
“So what if you were just on your own, with no time to prepare?”
“Well…probably not.”
Bloe hesitates for a moment but admits his likely defeat.
I’m sure he hesitated only because he was reluctant to admit it.
“Then what do you think would happen if a bunch of obrocks or deloombeiks were to attack in an anogratch-size swarm?”
“That’d be a tough battle.”
Either one of those monsters is manageable on its own.
Bloe seemed confident that he could defeat one by himself if he was able to set traps and such, and it’s possible to hunt them without any casualties if you bring a large enough group.
But what if they showed up in a great horde like anogratches?
Anogratches are far weaker than those other monsters individually, but when they run wild, there are always considerable losses.
If a monster even stronger than an anogratch was to swarm and attack in the same way, the death toll would likely be catastrophic.
It might even be the sort of battle that could spell the end of the demon race.
“Are you imagining it now? But you see, the Demon Lord could wipe out even a swarm of monsters like that without breaking a sweat.”
Bloe looks at me skeptically.
Dammit. I’ve failed.
Everything I’m saying is the truth, but the scale of my example was so large that it must have made it seem unbelievable.
“You don’t believe me? It’s the truth.”
“If you say so, Brother, then I believe you.”
But despite his words, Bloe doesn’t seem convinced.
“At any rate. Don’t even think about doing something as foolish as rebelling against the Demon Lord. The situation you’re in now may be horrible, but it could still get worse. I’ll do whatever I can to help you. So please just hang in there.”
It’s true.
This situation is bad, but it’s not completely hopeless.
There’s still a way to survive no matter how difficult it might be.
“I beg you. I don’t want to see you…my family…die.”
“Brother…”
Bloe trails off for a moment when I bare my honest feelings.
“…I’m sorry. All right. I’ll pull it off.”
I have no choice but to believe his determined declaration.
This is a real brother does everything for his brother even though he’s a hothead