“He’s not to blame, but compared to the previous king, it’s inevitable…”
This was the general assessment of the second King of the Kingdom of Tubant.
It couldn’t be helped, as it wasn’t the king’s fault.
After all, the first king was Marius, a hero who subdued Auraniess and saved the world from destruction at the hands of an Evil God.
He was hailed as a living legend, achieving deeds comparable to Melinda Guilford.
Anyone would seem inferior when compared to such a person.
So, he accepted it.
He resigned himself to the role of passing on what he inherited from his great Father King to the next generation.
However, there was one person who was dissatisfied with this.
Her name was Nergal, and she was the second king’s younger sister.
From her perspective, it was natural for their father to be a great legend, but it was wrong for her brother not to be appreciated in his own right.
Her father should be evaluated as her father, and her brother as her brother, but they kept belittling him by comparing him to their father.
“Are they really evaluating him accurately?”
As Nergal spoke with malice, the Demon Lord and demons nearby trembled.
“P-pardon us, Lady Nergal…”
When she unleashed her anger, even those with the strength of a Demon Lord turned pale and could only plead for their lives.
All of them had been gathered and trained by Nergal of her own volition.
It was said that even without doing so, they had Zofi, El and Al, Sophia and Iris, and others. However, to her, these individuals were all her parents’ subordinates.
There was no one who couldn’t be subdued by force, but she wanted to imitate her parents and create her own subordinates.
Even Marius, who was known for his rationality and common sense as a stabilizing force, did not object to this.
As a result, all the monsters on the Taliant Continent came under Nergal’s command, forming a massive organization with numerous Demon Lords.
“Should I have stopped her… or at least set some conditions or restrictions?”
Upon learning of this, Marius regretted it and looked up at the sky, but it was too late.
No one knew what would happen if countless demons and monsters, including many Demon Lords, were unleashed upon the world.
While there would be no foolish enough to defy Nergal, other countries might view the situation differently.
Currently, she had three Demon Lords and eight demons by her side.
This was enough military power for any country other than the Kingdom of Tubant to conquer in a single night.
“Now, you all? What do you think?”
Nergal turned her gaze to her subordinates.
“Yes, we believe your brother, Lady Nergal, is a very admirable person!”
“He has treated us very kindly, without any prejudice!”
They praised her brother one after another.
They knew that Nergal would never forgive anyone who spoke ill of her family.
Except for Auraniess, she showed no mercy to anyone who spoke ill of others, even her stepmother.
“…Hmph.”
She understood that they were saying these things out of fear for their lives.
Or perhaps it was better to say that she could understand now that her composure had returned.
“Well then, I shall go on an expedition.”
What Nergal announced was equivalent to a declaration that she was going to gather new subordinates.
They didn’t understand how she had come to such a conclusion.
However, they didn’t have the courage to ask.
“Where are you headed?”
“Outside the continent. In a decade or two, something might have emerged.”
They didn’t think anything worthy of Nergal’s attention would appear in just a decade or two, but they had no choice but to follow silently.
“I will keep gathering subordinates and collect rare items to present them all to my brother.”
So that it would be counted among his achievements.
The Demon Lord and demons bowed their heads silently to her unspoken wish.
Sieg, the second king, watched them leave from a distance and clutched his head.
“A significant portion of the reason why my evaluation as king is so lukewarm is their fault…”
From an outsider’s perspective, it didn’t look like he could control his sister and her retinue.
The subordinates were clearly loyal to her, and he appeared to be at a loss for how to handle her.
It was precisely because she had a personality overflowing with family love that nothing had happened.
It was troublesome precisely because she wasn’t wrong and had no ill intentions.
When he consulted his father, Marius, he was coldly told, “This is a problem you must solve.”
Well, it was true that a king couldn’t rely on the retired former king forever…
“My stomach hurts…”
What would Nergal think if she knew that the reason for the second King of Tubant’s uncertain evaluation was largely due to his own family?
This was Sieg’s reaction when he considered that possibility.
