#1089 Global Tremor

I am Zedan, the Demon King.

Just when I was quietly handling my usual state affairs, I suddenly got a request for a meeting.

It was from none other than President Ritheseus, the leader of the newly formed Human Republic.

On top of that, he’s apparently already inside my castle.

So the head of a whole country just barged in without so much as an appointment?

What kind of emergency is this?

Normally, this would be a huge diplomatic no-no. But considering it’s that bright young fellow Ritheseus we’re talking about, I’m sure he has a pretty serious reason.

Thinking he must have something urgent to say, I put my current paperwork aside and head to the reception.

“Demon King, I deeply apologize for showing up without warning…!!!”

“Don’t fret. We’re close enough that I won’t hold it against you.”

When I saw Ritheseus face-to-face, sure enough, he was sweating all over, looking downright panicked.

This is definitely not some trivial matter.

Figuring he’s wound up, I hand him a cup of coffee.

“First, have a drink and calm down. No matter how urgent the crisis, we need a cool head to handle it gracefully.”
“This is no time for—! …Well, I’ll have some.”

Ritheseus almost snapped, but he quickly reined himself in and took the cup.

...Yes, he’s young but already knows how to control his temper.

Given that composure, I’d say in under ten years he’ll be a truly outstanding administrator.

“So, what happened?”

“Lord Saint’s existence has gone public.”

“WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!”

Should we really be sitting here sipping coffee?!

Lord Saint?!

Lord Saint has gone public?! To what extent?!

Up until now, they’ve made the occasional appearance outside, but their true identity never leaked. Rumors never got very far.

If it’s at that same low level as before, we’d be fine, but…!

“It all started with the land development project.”

At those words, my face immediately twisted. Of course, it’d be that.

This development effort was carefully launched to secure new habitable land.

It’s a major joint project between the Demon Kingdom and the humans.

But the big worry was how close it was to Lord Saint’s farm.

‘Close’ here still means days of travel by foot, separated by harsh forests and mountains.

I figured no pioneer would just stumble upon the farm.

We stayed alert, but that reasoning let me relax.

So how did this happen?!

Did they surpass all our expectations and actually reach the farm?

I only heard they were on schedule!

…Wait!

Could it be their “on schedule” was secretly super-speedy?!

“No, the progress is actually average, maybe even a little behind. It’s because the cooperation between human and demon teams didn’t go smoothly.”

A snag in cooperation?

That’s concerning, but let’s focus on Lord Saint.

Why would he reveal himself now?

“Like I said, the root cause was that the cooperation between humans and demons never really took off. In fact, at the actual settlement, they weren’t just failing to work together—they were openly hostile, even breaking out into fistfights.”

“What?!”

How on earth did it come to this?!

I was under the impression that this whole project was meant to foster a friendlier, more cooperative coexistence between the humans and demons.

I thought both sides were on the same page about that!

“Apparently not. It seems that message never reached the front lines. Tensions in the settlement grew worse and worse, nearly coming to blows. It looks like the Saint noticed what was happening before anyone else did…”

So he stepped in to fix the mess himself.

That’s just like him...

He’s never been the sort to turn a blind eye when others are at each other’s throats.

I’ve personally benefited from that caring nature of his more times than I can count, so I’m hardly in a position to complain now.

“In that explosive situation, Lord Saint decided there was no time to consult us. He marched to the frontier with their attendants, subdued the settlers by force, and then pushed them to reconcile.”

I see, and then?

“But the pioneers were stubborn. To convince them, Lord Saint even called upon Veil to prove he really was the Saint.”

Why go that far?!

“Maybe they thought revealing their true identity was the only way to persuade those hardheads. Even then, the response was lukewarm, so Lord Saint declared he’d lead the development himself!”

So now, Lord Saint’s the one running the show at the development site?!

Unbelievable!

When he gets involved, everything leaps forward in unimaginable ways!

“As you suspect, the speed now is nothing like before. Lord Saint can speed up time hundreds of times—the usual.”

I can imagine.

“With that, the news got too big to stay local. It spread around, eventually reaching my ears. When I went to see for myself, Lord Saint was at the forefront, chopping trees, clearing land, working up a healthy sweat and looking like he was enjoying every minute of it.”

Wait, you actually went there in person?

That’s quite the diligence.

“After confirming it with my own eyes, I headed straight here to report and consult you, Demon King!”

So it was a toss-up who’d find out first, me or Ritheseus.

Whoever got the news first would be the first to act...

Still, isn’t it odd we’re only hearing this now?

Why didn’t we receive any official report from the site itself?

Something this important should’ve reached me immediately.

Instead, I’m hearing about it from another country—and Ritheseus himself only learned it from rumors, right?

“That’s right. I only learned about Lord Saint from street gossip. Not a word through official channels, not even about the conflicts on site.”

Same here.

If humans and demons were about to start slitting each other’s throats over there, that’d be drastic.

If that escalated, it could reignite another human-demon war. Not reporting it is a massive dereliction of duty.

“Every report from the frontier said ‘nothing unusual.’ In hindsight, it’s fishy. Right after we formed the development team, I planned to visit in person to encourage them, but my advisors insisted I had more pressing matters, stopping me from going.”

Hmm, we were swamped with our own metropolitan expansion issues and couldn’t spare the attention either.

Lucif Focale too.

“It’s as if someone wanted to keep both of us from looking too closely at the frontier. Doesn’t that seem likely?”

And in that blind spot, they wanted to spark a disaster big enough to sever our diplomatic ties?

“In the Human Kingdom, there’s a faction that opposes the development project. They’ve clashed with me for ages, and if the project failed, they’d gladly blame me.”

Hmm...

We have something similar.

In the Demon Kingdom, there’s a conflict over how to handle population growth... Should we develop new lands or relocate the capital?

We can only afford one, so both sides are at each other’s throats.

“And you chose development, right, Demon King?”

Indeed.

Moving the capital would crush us with even greater burdens.

And to be honest...

Something smells off about the capital-relocation faction.

“If the development project fails, they’ll push the relocation plan again?”

It’s possible.

That would waste all the effort we’ve put into expanding the Demon Capital, causing a huge uproar.

But for those desperate to see a relocation, it’d be a new ray of hope.

“So both of us have some troublesome groups to deal with, huh?”

That’s politics for you.

You can’t run a country on pure goodness alone.

“I understand that, but if the dark side that we’re forced to swallow crosses the line, we can’t just stay silent.”

Indeed.

The bigger worry is that these troublemakers while keeping the frontier off our radar, have been watching its every move.

And now Lord Saint has shown up there.

The last person we wanted in the spotlight is now center stage where all the wrong eyes can see them.

I’ve been dreading Lord Saint’s unveiling to the world for a long time, bracing myself for the day it would happen.

Now that it’s public, I can already sense the headaches coming our way.