Golden Experience

“Mmm, since we finished preparing, I was planning to send an expedition south to that volcano…” Rare muttered aloud while reading the information about the next server-wide event.

“What, is there some kinda problem?” Kerry looked at Rare curiously.

After checking out the effects of the demon lord characteristics and all the new skills she had unlocked, Rare had learned them all and mostly finished reincarnating her subordinates. She had gathered all of her main followers that day to plan the expedition to the southern volcanic belt.

“Nah, it’s just something came up. Apparently there’s going to be a huge invasion from monster territories all across the continent into human territories. I received an appeal for collaboration… or, well, a kind of request of that nature. It’s unfortunate, but the volcano expedition will have to wait until after this is over.”

<That does not sound very peaceful at all, for invasions to be taking place across the continent. Back when we still lived, nothing like this had ever happened.>

<Which side do you intend to aid, Your Majesty? The invaders? Or perhaps the defenders?>

Ever since Rare had reincarnated into a demon lord, Deas and Sieg stopped calling her “Princess” or “Highness” in favor of “Majesty.” All the other members still called her “Boss,” but they didn’t get any grief from the undead knights for it. Deas had a tendency to be overly serious, so she thought he might get grouchy about her form of address, but maybe his standards only applied to himself.

“That should be obvious; the invaders, of course. If we cooperate. We could just watch instead of working with the invaders. As for the human side, we’ve long since burned that bridge.”

<What monster races will be participating in this large invasion? That answer could determine whether we assist them or simply prey on them ourselves.>

“Uhh, let’s see, it just says ‘undead’ here, so probably mainly undead. I wonder if there’s undead in every monster territory—”

There was no way that could be true. The admins said they were going to make undead overflow from all the monster territories. But they couldn’t do that with the territories under Rare’s control. She wondered what would have happened if she hadn’t been here. They would probably have used Deas and Sieg to lead the invasions.

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In other words, the admins had prepared all this. Deas and Sieg were put in place for this purpose. Perhaps they even wanted to launch this event even earlier. Thinking back on it, the game announcement did say that the first server-wide event had some trouble with the intended implementation, which is why it got turned into a battle royale. It was possible that, since Rare had tamed Deas, their plans had been completely thrown off. And now, since Rare had become a demon lord, they decided that she was qualified as a raid boss even though she was a player, and that was why they sent an appeal for collaboration.

“I see, that seems logical.”

If her assumptions were correct, then it was her fault that things had gone awry. In which case, she really should work with them. Just as Rare was enjoying the game as much as she could, other players also had the right to enjoy the game. If she didn’t help out, then these neighboring towns wouldn’t be able to take part in the event, and that would be no good.

“Either way, if I’m going to participate, then I’m aiming to win. And I’m just another player, so even if some cities get demolished in the process, that’s just something that happened because of the event.”

<It is good that Boss seems to be enjoying herself. So, the friendly armies… I am not sure if it is acceptable to consider them as such, but are we sure that all their monsters will be undead?>

“Hm, Sugaru brings up a good point. There’s a possibility that a different race of monster in another region is commanding a horde of undead, but the majority of the armies will probably be all undead. Not to mention…” Rare directed a glance at Deas and Sieg. “Just maybe, with so many of these armies, there’s a good chance that some of them are connected to Deas and Sieg. If there used to only be a single kingdom on this continent, then it would make sense for traces of it to have been scattered all across it.”

<A keen observation…>

<…Your Majesty, we had the good fortune to be graced by your generosity, but luck is all it was. There may be more of our comrades out there, but you should not feel burdened to recruit them for us.>

<Verily. Our bodies have long perished. Your Majesty, the fact that Sir Deas and I have been allowed to swear our loyalty to you should be considered an exception. Please consider our other colleagues to have returned to dust.>

“Well… if you both insist.”

Be that as it may, Rare still wanted to bring any of them they found into the fold if possible. From what she heard from Sieg, the knight-captains of the Fourth Order and above were not particularly outstanding, and if anything they apparently only earned their statuses because of their noble bloodlines. Those ones she could do without, but the same couldn’t be said for the Second Order. Knowing that the First Order was the royal guard and the Third Order was effectively the First Army, she hadn’t been sure what the Second Order’s role was, but it turned out that they were military police.

Due to the [Subordinate] system, it was impossible for Rare’s followers to rebel against her. That should have been true back in the time of this ancient kingdom as well. In which case, why did they need to police the military? All of them, including the Second Order, should have been under the control of the person to whom they had sworn their loyalty. She really wanted to find out more about that. And if they seemed useful, then she wanted to integrate them into her own forces.

“Cities should be protected from intruders by a knight order or a local militia. If any of them are [Subordinated] by the lord, then when they die, they would probably respawn in a guardroom or somewhere similar.”

The event would last for one week—by the game clock, ten days. If the guards kept respawning as long as the lord was alive, then maybe they could exploit this event to spawn camp those guards. Same with enemy players; instead of attacking the inns directly, they could monitor them from a distance then pick off any players who left an inn.

<I regret to inform you, Your Majesty, that I do not believe border towns will have many knights who have pledged allegiance to a lord,> Deas stated.

“Why not?”

<Knight-captains and generals like us typically swear loyalty to the kingdom, and sometimes also to the current ruler, and we stake our very lives on our pledges. However, this is not true for squad leaders. Since an individual cannot be forced to bear the burden of the ceremony of allegiance, most guards will not return to life after being killed. To give you a broad estimate, only units like my First Order would pledge themselves to a lord.>

Rare understood his point. This explained the existence of military police. Deas didn’t say this directly, but the two groups that were probably made up of all [Subordinated] followers must have been the First’s royal guards and the Second’s military police. She didn’t really understand the part about the “burden” of [Subordinate], but assuming there really was something like that, then the resulting system was quite rational.

“In other words, taking over the city will go surprisingly quick, is that it?”

“I don’t know if it’s that surprising. If they’re only at the level of Erfahren’s sellswords, I don’t think they could even hold us off for an hour.”

Since Remy was the one saying it, the only one here who had frequent contact with the sellswords in the city, then she must be right.

“What about the soldiers? How well can rank-and-file soldiers who aren’t [Subordinated] fight?”

“I dunno? Higher class people don’t come to my store… But the city guards are at about the same level as the sellswords. Lately, the sellswords living in the city have been going to Liebe, so all of them are getting stronger, and I’ve heard townspeople saying that you could die trying to stop a fight between two drunk sellswords.”

In that case, this was a problem. It was a ten-day event, and they would finish up in less than half a day. But still, she also didn’t want to go easy on them. It would feel disrespectful to the players participating in the event. Plus, Rare was still only human. Even if this was just a game, she worked hard at it every day. In the end, she still felt a base desire to show off what she had accomplished to others.

“—All right, let’s check the map. Erfahren is here, and near Treu Forest there’s the town of, uhh, ‘Lourdes’ I think? We’ll definitely hit these two, and then…” Rare slid her finger along the map. “…this one too, ‘La Colline.’ This is a key location, the traffic center that connects this region. If the roads are arteries, then at the heart would naturally be a trade city. If we destroy it, then Hiers will set its sights on us, and they’ll definitely come to take it back even after the event is over.”