Needless to say, the snowfields were cold.

"Brrrr. C-cold."

"Y-you said you were a fur dwarf. J-just tough it out."

"M-my head feels like it's going to split."

Regardless of whether Erjest was warmer or colder, the dwarves had never been outside the tower since their abduction. They were not a people native to cold regions in the first place, so they had almost no resistance to the cold.

"I-if only we'd made some winter clothes."

Berge had frozen them all and brought them here before they could prepare for the cold. Though he had packed what he thought they needed, the supplies consisted entirely of materials for mana bombs and traps, with nothing for making winter clothes. That only made matters worse.

"Are you saying it's my fault?"

"I didn't say anything!"

"It was that self-proclaimed fur dwarf!"

Was shifting blame onto one another a racial trait of these damned dwarves?

Berge clicked his tongue and conjured a few small flames for them. The pure flames, born of Phoenix and dragon mana, were enough to drive away the cold.

"Now I can live..."

"Oooh, I'm thawing ooout..."

"Logger."

"Yes, my lord."

Berge unfolded the map of the snowfields Reina had given him and tapped several locations. They were places she had identified as good terrain for setting traps.

"Set suitable traps in these locations."

"Twelve locations. What level of quality are you looking for?"

"The best."

Though Berge was merely helping Reina, he did not want her to die. He also wanted to inflict as much damage as possible on the human bastards.

Just then—

"Monsters!"

"M-monsters!"

The dwarves made a fuss. The ground shook as a pack of dozens of drakes approached them.

"Calm those dwarves down. They're scared of mere monsters when there's a Demon King right beside them?"

Were they idiots?

"It's because all they've ever done is shut themselves in workshops and make things."

"Like you?"

"But I've grown quite accustomed to you, haven't I, my lord?"

"True. It was quite impressive when you swung a hammer at Hillen Cargill because you couldn't tear apart the tower anymore."

"I-I'd rather you forgot about that!"

A little later, the pack of drakes arrived. A frost demon lightly jumped down from the head of the largest one.

"Greetings, Demon King Berge. My name is Klein, a frost demon in service to my lord."

"Good to meet you."

"Thank you for helping my lord."

"I've received things in return. I'm merely repaying her in kind."

"There are more than enough demons who cannot even manage that much give-and-take."

"Well, that's true."

"They really are dwarves."

"Not one of them is to die."

"Yes. Of course."

Berge emptied all the supplies he had brought from his storage dimension, then gathered the dwarves.

"Starting now, build sleds and load these supplies onto them. The drakes will pull the sleds. Use them to set traps at the strategic locations on the map. Any questions?"

"I have one."

A dwarf raised a hand.

"If we finish this, will you really..."

"A Demon King does not lie."

'Liar.'

Logger struggled to suppress the honest response threatening to escape his lips. Well done. He had just saved his own life.

"Will we be safe?"

"Klein?"

"You will all be under my protection. As a retainer serving Demon King Reina, I will never allow harm to come to those helping her."

"You heard him, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"The faster you work, the less time you'll have to spend in the snowfields. Now go."

The promise that working faster meant returning to the tower sooner restored the dwarves' enthusiasm. They quickly began building dozens of large sleds.

"Hurry up and build!"

"Your hands aren't moving! Even my grandmother could work faster than that!"

With Logger there, they would manage on their own.

Berge filled several magic storage orbs with flames and tossed them to the dwarves, then ran toward the Tower of Bitter Cold.

The tower was bustling. Thousands of monsters prowled nearby, and demonic creatures and demons were everywhere.

"Lord Berge. It's good to see you again."

"Nina, was it?"

"Yes."

"Where's Reina?"

"She is waiting upstairs."

He went up to the top. Reina, who had been giving orders to her demons, welcomed him.

"The dwarves will build traps according to the map you gave me. But what exactly is your plan?"

"I expect their numbers will be great."

"Probably."

"That is why I believe we cannot meet them only inside the tower. We must use the vast snowfields, as you did. Especially now that you are helping us."

"You intend to ambush the humans while the traps have them in disarray?"

"That would be most effective. But all the monsters you brought have changed somehow. What did you do to them?"

There were no chimeras in the Demon Realm. Chimeric research was, after all, a discipline humans had created to handle demonic creatures and monsters.

The queen of the noble frost demons knew nothing of such things.

"I merely modified them a little."

"Is such a thing possible?"

"Gordon has been researching it."

He could hardly tell her he was having a human princess do it.

"Dark elves are excellent mages."

Fortunately, Reina accepted the explanation.

"But your adjutant is not a mage. He is a swords—"

"Oh, right. Have you heard any news of them?"

"I am keeping a close watch. The size of the hero's journey has been decided."

While Reina prepared for the hero's journey, the humans rapidly made their own preparations. The failed assault on the Tower of Hellfire had come as an enormous shock, driving hostility and wariness toward Demon Kings to their peak.

As a result, the scale of what was merely a hero's journey grew beyond imagination. There were several reasons.

They would cover failure with success. The nations that had tasted bitter defeat at Berge's hands needed to show everyone that humanity still held the upper hand.

Thus, they enthusiastically agreed to Balaf Dislord's proposed assault on the Tower of Bitter Cold. They wanted to quell the people's anxiety, and extreme public demands to slaughter every Demon King also helped push them into action.

Of course, the assault on the Tower of Bitter Cold was not universally welcomed.

Especially in the Empire. Its people insisted that Berge must take priority, without exception. The First Prince, a symbol of the Empire, had been abducted. Yet, perhaps because of Balaf, the Empire prioritized the assault on the Tower of Bitter Cold.

"Balaf Dislord, Aina Diaphrin, Roselle Charnt, and Ralph Schmitz. Those four are the Stars joining the raiding party."

"How did you find out?"

"I have my ways."

He had heard it from Hillen Cargill. As Berge wished, Hillen was not participating in this hero's journey, but his position as an Argan allowed him to obtain information quite quickly.

"The Empire is out for blood. An estimated thirty thousand troops will be mobilized. And three hundred heroes."

"Far fewer than came for you."

"That's thirty thousand from the Empire alone. Including the coalition forces from other nations, it's fifty thousand."

Ordinarily, the Empire was insular and would not tolerate foreign troops roaming its territory. This time, however, it acted unexpectedly, reaching out to the coalition on the grounds that their alliance was still in effect.

That was how an immense force was assembled to conquer the Tower of Bitter Cold. Though smaller than the hundred and ten thousand mobilized to find Berge's tower, it was larger than the force that had marched on the fake tower.

"... Hopeless."

"I can't offer you any optimistic assurances that you'll stop them."

"Even if you did, I could not gladly accept them."

Reina smiled bitterly.

Berge, who had been watching for an opening, gently broached the subject.

"It's not as though there are no options."

"There is a way?"

"First, I need to make one thing clear. Remember that I am not saying this to belittle you or look down on you."

"What could warrant such a preface?"

After a brief pause, Berge spoke.

"Just before Vivian's tower disappeared, she contacted you. What did she say?"

"She begged me to save her. In an ugly, vulgar manner unbecoming of a Demon King."

"And?"

Reina thought for a moment. In truth, she had never given her final conversation with Vivian much thought.

"She asked me to take her in, even as a servant—"

Reina shut her mouth. Her eyes turned cold.

"I hope what you intend to tell me is not what I think it is."

Because she would be truly disappointed in him.

"Unfortunately, I suspect it is. I don't want you to die. But if the suggestion offended you, I apologize."

"For a Demon King, some things hold greater value than life itself. Was I wrong about you?"

A chill spread through the air. Berge explained his position as calmly as he could.

"Because, as far as I can see, it's the only way."

"... I am a Demon King. I have never heard of a Demon King becoming another Demon King's servant."

"You haven't heard of it. But there's no passage in the Guide explicitly forbidding it."

"Because it has never happened. What Demon King would ever become another's servant?"

"Vivian Blunt."

"... When you said you helped her, you meant you took her in as your servant?"

"Vivian wanted it. And she's alive now. Dying as a Demon King is all well and good, but isn't living to take revenge better?"

"Perhaps it is."

Unexpectedly, Reina readily nodded.

"Every demon places different values above others. I find Vivian ugly and vulgar, but I do not consider the value she places first to be inferior. Life is precious. However..."

"However?"

"As much as Vivian values her life, I value my dignity as a Demon King. I will face my enemies proudly as a Demon King. That is the duty I must bear, having descended to this dimension as a representative of the Demon Realm."

"I respect your wishes. But..."

"But?"

"In that case, I don't think I can fulfill your request."

"What do you mean?"

"If—and I hope it doesn't happen, but if—you die, didn't you ask me to take the frost demons as my servants?"

"I did."

"With you dead, would they really agree to become my servants?"

"...!"

After a moment of silence, Reina forced out an answer.

"If I command them..."

"That would be fortunate, but you know them better than I do, don't you?"

"..."

"I also believe it's right for a Demon King to face their enemies proudly. But must that mean fighting to the death?"

Would she drive them all to their deaths over some paltry sense of duty and responsibility?

"The Demon Realm won't take responsibility for them."

The stone Berge cast sent ripples through Reina's heart.

* * *

『We need the dwarves' help.』

The Tower of Hellfire was beneath the sea. An ordinary ship could not reach it.

"What kind of help?"

『The levitation ship. Their national treasure.』

The levitation ship was a national treasure of the dwarves. An enormous vessel capable of carrying more than a thousand people, it could fly through the sky thanks to levitation stones and dwarven technology.

But if flying were all it could do, Balaf would not have specifically said they needed the dwarves' help.

『The levitation ship can also travel beneath the sea by surrounding itself with a thin underwater barrier. If his tower is in the sea, we absolutely need that ship.』

"Surely the dwarves won't hand it over?"

『Making that happen is your job.』

"Lord Balaf."

『Jason Cockmundo. As you intended, everyone's anger turned toward the Demon King of Hellfire. And what was the result?』

『The worst of the worst. That anger has mingled with fear, and those emotions must be fattening him up. We must kill him as soon as possible.』

Balaf knew that humanity's negative emotions gave Demon Kings strength. Thus, he knew the Demon King of Hellfire would be stronger the next time they met.

That was one reason he insisted they must kill the Demon King of Bitter Cold. Time was not on Balaf's side.

『We cannot fail this time. To ensure that, we absolutely need the levitation ship.』

There was nothing wrong with Balaf's argument.

"I have no significant ties to Berft."

『But you have numerous connections in the Empire. Enough to get it moving.』

"Very well."

Jason adjusted his monocle.

"I will find some way to persuade the dwarves. So please make sure you succeed in cutting off Bitter Cold's head."

『Are you doubting me? I am—』

"I know very well who you are. But I hear the humans have a saying."

Once is a mistake, twice is coincidence, but three times is inevitable.

"You have already failed three times. No, twice, if we exclude the time you brought back a dragon instead of a Demon King."