Editing Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha:Volume 7 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 4===

“You mean that…you want me to change the rules of the battle?”

Within the high-ranking ministers’ meeting room that was located in the lowest floor of Lundvall Castle, the sound of Leohart’s voice was heard. Leohart came to this meeting room after meeting with Naruse Mio, Toujou Basara and the others in the lobby, and was explaining the decisive battle against the Moderates Faction in detail. At the other end of this question, acting as the leader of the Council, Belphegor smiled.

“Don’t say that, I don’t want something as excessive as that.”

“Your Majesty…Belphegor-sama simply asked you whether or not you could make an exception, and increase the number of entrants in the showdown.”

The next person to speak was another member of the Council who was sitting beside Belphegor. He was the high-class demon who held the seat of [Greed] amongst the Seven Deadly Sins — Mardones. Among the Council, Belphegor possessed absolute leadership, and like the seat of [Sloth] that he represented, he was often missing at meetings; during those times, the one responsible for leading the Council was Mardones. To put it bluntly, he was the second most powerful person among the Council members.

“In the decisive battle that Your Majesty has planned, both sides send out five representatives from their faction…but as of now, Gardo was injured recently during the attack on Wildart City, and of the people chosen from Your Majesty’s confidantes, although their strength is sufficient to fight on behalf of us and Your Majesty, the problem regarding the number of people is an indisputable fact. So, we want to provide a few of our subordinates to help out, please consider this, Your Majesty.”

Mardones said. Indeed, amongst the people that Leohart was able to trust, the only ones who were able to partake in the battle were Balthier, Luca, and Lars, a total of three people; because Luca was a scholar who didn’t normally fight, the heroic spirits or demonic beasts that he was contracted with would take his place. Even so, there were only four people including Leohart, so they were still short one person. However—

“There’s no need for you to go out of your way so far, Mardones. Luca will soon be able to arrange a high-class spirit no lesser than the one used in the previous attack, so it’ll be fine as long as we use that spirit to take Gardo’s place.”

“So to say, two large spirits will be used, in place of the boy called Luca and Gardo-dono…? In the previous attack, the spirits were eventually defeated; don’t you think that the risk is too high if we rely on those things? The citizens are likely to voice their concerns, and it may cause a panic.”

After saying that, a thin smile was still painted on Belphegor’s face.

“Belphegor, the risk that you speak of…wasn’t it caused by your subordinate who sneakily attacked Gardo during the attack on Wildart City?”

In return, Leohart resorted to using Nebula’s betrayal as an accusation against Belphegor.

“I really am ashamed to say it…Nebula was indeed one of my subordinates, for something so regrettable to happen, it truly is due to my lack of discipline…although he has already paid for it with his life due to the curse of the Master-Servant contract, I am still partly to blame for the injury that was done to Gardo-dono. That’s why I really hope that Your Majesty will accept the assistance of the Council, to give us a chance to make up for this blunder.”

That cunning Belphegor had shifted his own responsibility into a weapon, and was unwilling to budge.

“…If you think that the spirits are unreliable, then we can call back the Eight Demon Generals.”

Leohart brought up the Eight Demon Generals. It was the name that belonged to the eight military generals. They each led a large army, and each of them guarded the vast territory of the Current Maou Faction’s east, south, west, north, southeast, northeast, southwest, and northwest; each of them were similar to Leohart, and were mighty warriors who had made major accomplishments in the previous Great War. Hence, the Council was afraid that leaving them in the capital would leave Leohart with too much power, so all of them were sent to the frontier, but the situation had now changed.

“This decisive battle is key to determining who will hold supremacy in the Demon Realm, so we should naturally summon our greatest combat force.”

“You cannot, Your Majesty. That will actually do more harm than good.”

A cheeky smile was revealed on Mardones’ face.

“The combat strength of the generals is indeed undoubtedly high, but precisely because they are at the borders containing the other factions at the moment, in our capital — peace can be secured in Lundvall. Even if we call for a single one of them to return, one region will be without its leader…if we weaken our military strength at one of the frontiers just for this showdown, it will give rise to an opportunity for another faction to swoop in, so wouldn’t that be equivalent to putting the cart before the horse? Additionally—”

Mardones continued

“In a decisive battle for the sake of the future of the Demon Realm, seven is more suitable than five as the number of representatives, right?”

“………”

Leohart was speechless. In the Demon Realm, the number [seven] had a special significance, one of the best examples were the [Seven Deadly Sins]; Leohart had wanted the citizens to avoid thinking about the politics of the old demons, and deliberately chose to have five representatives. Without including Gardo in the four members, or no longer including Luca who had no combat ability on his own, there were still three members left, and taking into consideration the Council and the other opposing factions, it was possible that they would say ‘Leohart is trying to pursue his own interests during such an important situation, and is acting stubborn despite historical traditions’ for the sake of finding faults with him; that was why he reluctantly decided on five participants in light of Gardo’s absence, in order to avoid this kind of risk.

''…But it is truly surprising that they could actually turn things around to take advantage of the problem of the absence that they created.''

Although they had lived longer and were more thick-skinned, they were able to justify their own selfish interests, pitch it well, and appear inspirational to other people. In order to defeat this sly Council, it wouldn’t be so simple. However — also because of this, he had to defeat this bunch of old bastards no matter what.

''…If I continue to insist, I’ll probably lose.''

Based on the flow of the current situation, even Luca’s place would be lost as soon as he got careless. Thus…

“Very well…the number of representatives will be changed to seven. For the two newly added places, as well as Gardo’s third place, I agree to have your candidates as participants.”

“Oh, that is excellent…wise indeed, Your Majesty.”

“But — I have a condition.”

However, Leohart didn’t plan to give in so plainly, and said so softly to Belphegor who had a thin smile on his face.

Even though the opponent was the Council that secretly controlled the Demon Realm.

Even though he was the puppet Demon Lord that they had elected.

He couldn’t — continue to allow the bunch of old bastards in front of him to play with the Demon Realm in the palms of their hands.