1-10 (Second Logistic Department Improvement Meeting)
The Second Logistic Department Improvement Meeting.
Or, the first Demon Army Reform meeting.
“Well then, since we’re short in time, let us immediately start the meeting.”
The meeting sponsored by Her Majesty proceeded as usual.
And the participant also almost didn’t change.
The things that changed is that the representative from the development department, Leona, and Her Majesty attended this meeting.
Which speaking frankly, this room now filled with a sense of intimidation.
“… To borrow Her Majesty power like this, how vulgar.”
Someone said those words in a subdued voice.
As expected, unlike the other days, the attendances are reluctant to voice out their mind in front of Her Majesty.
But what matters to me right now is not that.
“I would like to clear some misunderstanding before we entered the main subject.”
“What? Are you going to apologize?”
The representative of the military police, the vampire spoke out. Just like the military police, the way he asked the question is close to that of an interrogation.
“There is no reason for me to apologize. I only want to talk about a simple fact.”
“Hou?”
If this meeting was the same as the previous meeting, I would be showered by verbal abuse by now, but as expected, they didn’t do that because of Her Majesty presence.
However, I daringly destroyed such a delicate situation.
“In simple term, the demon lord Hell Arche had obtained a position that was not suited for her, just because the other demons pledge their loyalty. Thus, I declared that Her Majesty Hell Arche possessed power beyond her own understanding.”
At that moment, the entire room of the conference froze.
Noise starts to raise one by one.
“— You bastard, are you insane?!”
“Such disrespectful speech you have! Military police, arrest him!”
“Are you trying to insult her majesty, you human trash!”
“To say something like that in front of her majesty, how dare you!”
I guess its normal for them to act like this after what I said.
But well, I’ve taken some consideration regarding this.
Looking at Her Majesty seat for an instant, she stared at me without saying anything.
“You guys, be a little silent.”
Her majesty voice sounded not like her usual voice.
And her eyes also shined, unlike her usual gaze.
In front of me right now, her voice and gaze contain the pressure of the true demon king.
Even the guard standing beside her looked scared.
“It has been a while, Akira. It has been a while since the last time someone openly criticized me like this.”
“I see… It seems there’s no ‘Yuusha’ in the demon army eh?” <TLN: This is sarcasm, Yuusha could mean both Brave man and Hero.>
“Akira, tell me the reason why you said what you said. Depending on your reason, I will decide whether your words should be regarded as lese majesty or not.”
“I understand. Let me explain it then.”
Then Her Majesty sending her gaze to the surrounding as if telling them not to disturb me during my explanation. And at the same time, she also prepared to kill me without hesitation if she deemed my reason to be insufficient.
“Your Majesty Hell Arce-, Indeed as a demon lord, you’re in fact very strong. And because I am a human, I couldn’t handle any magic, and I’ve never seen it closely. Still, as long the things I heard were credible, the strength your majesty possessed is one of the best in history. Such a fact was the reason why such an individual could become a demon lord… However, unfortunately, other than your strength, I’m hesitating to call your majesty, ‘majesty’.”
“..Continue”
“Yes. Your Majesty is strong. However, you’re not suited to lead. Your Majesty has her own virtue. And I’m certain of it. – However, Her Majesty who had such personal virtue ended up lacking cold-heartedness.”
It is good if she has her own natural virtue. Thus I could respect her as my boss.
If the highest authority has some virtue, they might overlook some minor mistakes.
However, as the demon lord, she is the demon army’s commander-in-chief, she also the highest authority within the executive, and also the highest judicial power.
Let us set aside her dense personality, even if she had the ability and virtue, as a ruler she was lacking.
The example of that is cold-heartedness.
Sometimes, a ruler needs to project themselves as a cold-blooded person toward their subject.
Your Majesty is indeed a kind one. That is something I could appreciate. As a boss.
That means she is not a tyrant.
Of course, no matter how high their ability and skills are, it is impossible for a single person to hold all of the titles by themselves. <TLN: Executive, Judicial, and Legislative>
Even if the person is the demon lord.
That is why a ruler needs an aide to share those roles.
For example, as the supreme ruler, she could appoint a prime minister as the highest executive decision maker, and place attorney general as the supreme judiciary power.
However, Her Majesty didn’t do any of them.
“Your Majesty seems to have thought that by going to the front line your majesty would fulfill her duty, and misunderstood that by doing so, your Majesty had also fulfilled her duty as the highest judiciary power and also executive power. After I see that, I’ve decided. On this occasion, I would like to perform censure toward your majesty.”
“I didn’t do the work that I needed to do, is that what you said?”
“Precisely. I will explain the problem that has occurred due to Her Majesty negligence. … Sofia-san, please hand out the papers.”
“Understood. Akira-sama.”
Sofia-san distributed the material to all participants including the guards, it was something we’ve gathered with all of our might these past two weeks.
The atmosphere changed the moment the read the content of the paper.
“This is…!”
Her Majesty was also looked surprised when she saw the paper. The Guard stand on the back also showed white eyes expression.
On the other hand, there were some people who had their face turn blue.
“Akira, did you investigate all of this by yourself?”
“… More accurately, I got help from Sofia, Wolff, and commander Uruk from the transportation corps.”
“… I see. Now I understand.”
Her Majesty closed her eyes and nodded her head many times.
At that moment, the vampire of the military police raised his voice.
“This is nonsense!”
“No, this is not nonsense at all. This is proof that there is cancer inside the demon army, and also a proof of her majesty negligence.”
“What do you mean a proof? This is nothing but fabrication! To hand over this kind of thing to Her Majesty, you insolent!”
“You have no right to criticized about this matters.”
On those papers, written the names of those who had done something wrong within the demon army.
Your name is also there isn’t it, the vampire whose name I don’t know, also the General of the capital defense, and the director of the information department.
The wrongdoing that those people did was something simple. Such as using some goods from the warehouse to profit themselves since the warehouse had a bad management.
“Where is the evidence?!”
“Evidence? There are a lot of them, you know? Though because all of this time the management was bad, it was hard to find evidence. In regard of the warehouse management for example.”
Since I came, the management of the transportation warehouse has been improved.
However, that information was not a well-known one.
I have no particular reason for hiding it, I hide the truth to emphasize the result at this meeting, but I never thought something like this would actually happen.
To put it simply, there were many incidents where wooden boxes contained goods disappeared.
Moreover, the goods that disappeared were those who had high prices in the market if being sold, such as magic stones and liquor. Turn out, there was a corruption.
After I found out that a corruption occurred, what left for me to do was to find the criminal.
Just by waiting in ambush. Then investigate those who involved with it. And now, I firmly have evidence.
“You, you sold the red stone to a private Guild located in the capital, no?”
“… I don’t know what you’re talking about. Stop the groundless speech.”
“It would be rude if I do a false charge. Though I do have an evidence and also a testimony.”
Of course, not only from the guild official, we also found the papers regarding the deal.
I almost want to cry when I found out that the private Guild actually had a more advanced documentation compared to the demon army.
…Ah, now that I think about it. I came up with a good idea. Let us recruit some people from the private sector. I wonder if people would apply if the work was not something related to the front line. But an office work, like civil servants.
Alright, let’s propose that when all of this is over.
“That evidence and testimony must be forged! In order to make me fall and raise your status!”
“No, if I want to raise my status, I won’t do this during a meeting like this. But well, raising in status would be nice though. But anyway, let us return to the topic. I do have something called a solid proof.”
After saying that, I put a box on the table.
The same wooden box that was kept in the warehouse. The difference was, I got this wooden box, not from the warehouse.
“I found this from the Guild called, Blade Nacht. If I’m not wrong, the Blade Nacht Guild Director is your older brother yes?”
“… So what? That is just a wooden box.”
“No, this is not just a wooden box. Unfortunately.”
That’s right, this is not your ordinary wooden box. As I mentioned before, this was the same wooden box that was kept in the warehouse. As an evidence for that, there was a big characteristic on the wooden box.
“There’s a red mark on it no? We draw this on the box to indicate that the box is something that the transportation corps uses. But somehow, we found this in your brother’s Guild storehouse.”
“…”
Finally, the vampire unable to speak. I tried not to turn my gaze at her majesty.
“I did abuse my authority to make Sofia-san check the Guild’s account book as well. That Guild, despite the finance problem, they manage to obtain those red stones. Looking through it, the practice has been ongoing for almost 18 years.”
“…”
“Come to think of it, when did you become a military commander?”
“…”
It was 18 years ago. That could be understood just by asking the personnel department. Though I had a hard time finding the record.
But the vampire seems not willing to give up.
“Then, so what?! I don’t know anything about this, you damn human(Food)! For your incompetent self to judge the military police like this! Furthermore insulting her majesty like that! Your Majesty, please pass some judgment to this foolish person-…”
“– Nacht!”
Nacht, I see, that was his name? I somehow found it suit him. But well, I feel it was something I don’t need to remember.
“Nacht, stay silent until the meeting is over.”
“—Khu.”
Well, what I show them was a circumstantial evidence.
And also physical evidence that has some room for fabrication. But well, as if I’m going to tell them that.
“Akira, keep going.”
“Yes. With your permission, I would like to continue the censure.”
The biggest problem of this case was that if we investigate it a little bit more, despite being a small case, such a case would appear all over the places.
In other words, just because the case was small, they army decide to ignore it. –
Which turn the army to become an organization that lost its self-cleaning capacity. A very critical flaw.
“I do think this case as an easy small corruption. It would be rather easy to solve. Especially for the all-knowing Her Majesty, there’s no way Her Majesty didn’t notice it. Am I wrong, ‘your Majesty’, Hell Arche?”
“…”
It was her majesty who ended up in silent this time. However, her eyes sharply keep looking at me.
“To turn blind eyes toward one own retainer corruption, I think your majesty has lost her qualification as a ruler.”
If the wrongdoing had gone too far, it was the same as her turn a blind eye at it. –
Because a ruler ignored a small corruption, the big corruption would happen. Depending on the situation, the ruler themselves may allow for that to happen.
But if this kind of corruption ended up lowering the quality of the whole organization, it was something that could not be categorized as a small corruption anymore.
“Your Majesty, who are you?”
“…”
It was a long silence.
A long silence that felt like an eternity.
What broke down the silence was her majesty dignified voice. A very demon lord like voice.
“Who am I? I’m the demon lord. The demon lord who control this continent.”
By that words, the second meeting ended.
———————————————–
The second meeting ended with no discussion in regard to logistic department improvement.
But since that day, the demon lord command the rapid reform within the army.
As a matter of course, the vampire commander, Nacht, because of his wrongdoing, he was detained and dismissed from the army. Those who were involved in the same wrongdoing also share the same fate.
Though some people who work besides Nacht received smaller punishment depending on how much they were involved.
And the fate of the person who insulted her majesty in public, in other words, I—
“Akira. As punishment for insulting me, Proceed with your reform. I will not let the other guys complained. … Though after participating in that meeting, I bet no one would be brave enough to oppose you now.”
That was what she said.
In other words, nothing changed.
“I felt really terrified you know? To think you would censure her majesty directly like that…”
“It can’t be helped, we only have that method to proceed back then…”
As expected, strong leadership was needed when one wants to execute a bold large-scale reform.
I had none of that, but Her Majesty did.
“Now with this, we could advance. Sofia-san. There’s something I would like you to do, is it okay?”
“You may ask anything, Akira-sama.”
Unlike the usual her, this time, Sofia-san smiled.
– – –
1-10 (Second Logistic Department Improvement Meeting)
The Second Logistic Department Improvement Meeting.
Or, the first Demon Army Reform meeting.
“Well then, since we’re short in time, let us immediately start the meeting.”
The meeting sponsored by Her Majesty proceeded as usual.
And the participant also almost didn’t change.
The things that changed is that the representative from the development department, Leona, and Her Majesty attended this meeting.
Which speaking frankly, this room now filled with a sense of intimidation.
“… To borrow Her Majesty power like this, how vulgar.”
Someone said those words in a subdued voice.
As expected, unlike the other days, the attendances are reluctant to voice out their mind in front of Her Majesty.
But what matters to me right now is not that.
“I would like to clear some misunderstanding before we entered the main subject.”
“What? Are you going to apologize?”
The representative of the military police, the vampire spoke out. Just like the military police, the way he asked the question is close to that of an interrogation.
“There is no reason for me to apologize. I only want to talk about a simple fact.”
“Hou?”
If this meeting was the same as the previous meeting, I would be showered by verbal abuse by now, but as expected, they didn’t do that because of Her Majesty presence.
However, I daringly destroyed such a delicate situation.
“In simple term, the demon lord Hell Arche had obtained a position that was not suited for her, just because the other demons pledge their loyalty. Thus, I declared that Her Majesty Hell Arche possessed power beyond her own understanding.”
At that moment, the entire room of the conference froze.
Noise starts to raise one by one.
“— You bastard, are you insane?!”
“Such disrespectful speech you have! Military police, arrest him!”
“Are you trying to insult her majesty, you human trash!”
“To say something like that in front of her majesty, how dare you!”
I guess its normal for them to act like this after what I said.
But well, I’ve taken some consideration regarding this.
Looking at Her Majesty seat for an instant, she stared at me without saying anything.
“You guys, be a little silent.”
Her majesty voice sounded not like her usual voice.
And her eyes also shined, unlike her usual gaze.
In front of me right now, her voice and gaze contain the pressure of the true demon king.
Even the guard standing beside her looked scared.
“It has been a while, Akira. It has been a while since the last time someone openly criticized me like this.”
“I see… It seems there’s no ‘Yuusha’ in the demon army eh?” <TLN: This is sarcasm, Yuusha could mean both Brave man and Hero.>
“Akira, tell me the reason why you said what you said. Depending on your reason, I will decide whether your words should be regarded as lese majesty or not.”
“I understand. Let me explain it then.”
Then Her Majesty sending her gaze to the surrounding as if telling them not to disturb me during my explanation. And at the same time, she also prepared to kill me without hesitation if she deemed my reason to be insufficient.
“Your Majesty Hell Arce-, Indeed as a demon lord, you’re in fact very strong. And because I am a human, I couldn’t handle any magic, and I’ve never seen it closely. Still, as long the things I heard were credible, the strength your majesty possessed is one of the best in history. Such a fact was the reason why such an individual could become a demon lord… However, unfortunately, other than your strength, I’m hesitating to call your majesty, ‘majesty’.”
“..Continue”
“Yes. Your Majesty is strong. However, you’re not suited to lead. Your Majesty has her own virtue. And I’m certain of it. – However, Her Majesty who had such personal virtue ended up lacking cold-heartedness.”
It is good if she has her own natural virtue. Thus I could respect her as my boss.
If the highest authority has some virtue, they might overlook some minor mistakes.
However, as the demon lord, she is the demon army’s commander-in-chief, she also the highest authority within the executive, and also the highest judicial power.
Let us set aside her dense personality, even if she had the ability and virtue, as a ruler she was lacking.
The example of that is cold-heartedness.
Sometimes, a ruler needs to project themselves as a cold-blooded person toward their subject.
Your Majesty is indeed a kind one. That is something I could appreciate. As a boss.
That means she is not a tyrant.
Of course, no matter how high their ability and skills are, it is impossible for a single person to hold all of the titles by themselves. <TLN: Executive, Judicial, and Legislative>
Even if the person is the demon lord.
That is why a ruler needs an aide to share those roles.
For example, as the supreme ruler, she could appoint a prime minister as the highest executive decision maker, and place attorney general as the supreme judiciary power.
However, Her Majesty didn’t do any of them.
“Your Majesty seems to have thought that by going to the front line your majesty would fulfill her duty, and misunderstood that by doing so, your Majesty had also fulfilled her duty as the highest judiciary power and also executive power. After I see that, I’ve decided. On this occasion, I would like to perform censure toward your majesty.”
“I didn’t do the work that I needed to do, is that what you said?”
“Precisely. I will explain the problem that has occurred due to Her Majesty negligence. … Sofia-san, please hand out the papers.”
“Understood. Akira-sama.”
Sofia-san distributed the material to all participants including the guards, it was something we’ve gathered with all of our might these past two weeks.
The atmosphere changed the moment the read the content of the paper.
“This is…!”
Her Majesty was also looked surprised when she saw the paper. The Guard stand on the back also showed white eyes expression.
On the other hand, there were some people who had their face turn blue.
“Akira, did you investigate all of this by yourself?”
“… More accurately, I got help from Sofia, Wolff, and commander Uruk from the transportation corps.”
“… I see. Now I understand.”
Her Majesty closed her eyes and nodded her head many times.
At that moment, the vampire of the military police raised his voice.
“This is nonsense!”
“No, this is not nonsense at all. This is proof that there is cancer inside the demon army, and also a proof of her majesty negligence.”
“What do you mean a proof? This is nothing but fabrication! To hand over this kind of thing to Her Majesty, you insolent!”
“You have no right to criticized about this matters.”
On those papers, written the names of those who had done something wrong within the demon army.
Your name is also there isn’t it, the vampire whose name I don’t know, also the General of the capital defense, and the director of the information department.
The wrongdoing that those people did was something simple. Such as using some goods from the warehouse to profit themselves since the warehouse had a bad management.
“Where is the evidence?!”
“Evidence? There are a lot of them, you know? Though because all of this time the management was bad, it was hard to find evidence. In regard of the warehouse management for example.”
Since I came, the management of the transportation warehouse has been improved.
However, that information was not a well-known one.
I have no particular reason for hiding it, I hide the truth to emphasize the result at this meeting, but I never thought something like this would actually happen.
To put it simply, there were many incidents where wooden boxes contained goods disappeared.
Moreover, the goods that disappeared were those who had high prices in the market if being sold, such as magic stones and liquor. Turn out, there was a corruption.
After I found out that a corruption occurred, what left for me to do was to find the criminal.
Just by waiting in ambush. Then investigate those who involved with it. And now, I firmly have evidence.
“You, you sold the red stone to a private Guild located in the capital, no?”
“… I don’t know what you’re talking about. Stop the groundless speech.”
“It would be rude if I do a false charge. Though I do have an evidence and also a testimony.”
Of course, not only from the guild official, we also found the papers regarding the deal.
I almost want to cry when I found out that the private Guild actually had a more advanced documentation compared to the demon army.
…Ah, now that I think about it. I came up with a good idea. Let us recruit some people from the private sector. I wonder if people would apply if the work was not something related to the front line. But an office work, like civil servants.
Alright, let’s propose that when all of this is over.
“That evidence and testimony must be forged! In order to make me fall and raise your status!”
“No, if I want to raise my status, I won’t do this during a meeting like this. But well, raising in status would be nice though. But anyway, let us return to the topic. I do have something called a solid proof.”
After saying that, I put a box on the table.
The same wooden box that was kept in the warehouse. The difference was, I got this wooden box, not from the warehouse.
“I found this from the Guild called, Blade Nacht. If I’m not wrong, the Blade Nacht Guild Director is your older brother yes?”
“… So what? That is just a wooden box.”
“No, this is not just a wooden box. Unfortunately.”
That’s right, this is not your ordinary wooden box. As I mentioned before, this was the same wooden box that was kept in the warehouse. As an evidence for that, there was a big characteristic on the wooden box.
“There’s a red mark on it no? We draw this on the box to indicate that the box is something that the transportation corps uses. But somehow, we found this in your brother’s Guild storehouse.”
“…”
Finally, the vampire unable to speak. I tried not to turn my gaze at her majesty.
“I did abuse my authority to make Sofia-san check the Guild’s account book as well. That Guild, despite the finance problem, they manage to obtain those red stones. Looking through it, the practice has been ongoing for almost 18 years.”
“…”
“Come to think of it, when did you become a military commander?”
“…”
It was 18 years ago. That could be understood just by asking the personnel department. Though I had a hard time finding the record.
But the vampire seems not willing to give up.
“Then, so what?! I don’t know anything about this, you damn human(Food)! For your incompetent self to judge the military police like this! Furthermore insulting her majesty like that! Your Majesty, please pass some judgment to this foolish person-…”
“– Nacht!”
Nacht, I see, that was his name? I somehow found it suit him. But well, I feel it was something I don’t need to remember.
“Nacht, stay silent until the meeting is over.”
“—Khu.”
Well, what I show them was a circumstantial evidence.
And also physical evidence that has some room for fabrication. But well, as if I’m going to tell them that.
“Akira, keep going.”
“Yes. With your permission, I would like to continue the censure.”
The biggest problem of this case was that if we investigate it a little bit more, despite being a small case, such a case would appear all over the places.
In other words, just because the case was small, they army decide to ignore it. –
Which turn the army to become an organization that lost its self-cleaning capacity. A very critical flaw.
“I do think this case as an easy small corruption. It would be rather easy to solve. Especially for the all-knowing Her Majesty, there’s no way Her Majesty didn’t notice it. Am I wrong, ‘your Majesty’, Hell Arche?”
“…”
It was her majesty who ended up in silent this time. However, her eyes sharply keep looking at me.
“To turn blind eyes toward one own retainer corruption, I think your majesty has lost her qualification as a ruler.”
If the wrongdoing had gone too far, it was the same as her turn a blind eye at it. –
Because a ruler ignored a small corruption, the big corruption would happen. Depending on the situation, the ruler themselves may allow for that to happen.
But if this kind of corruption ended up lowering the quality of the whole organization, it was something that could not be categorized as a small corruption anymore.
“Your Majesty, who are you?”
“…”
It was a long silence.
A long silence that felt like an eternity.
What broke down the silence was her majesty dignified voice. A very demon lord like voice.
“Who am I? I’m the demon lord. The demon lord who control this continent.”
By that words, the second meeting ended.
———————————————–
The second meeting ended with no discussion in regard to logistic department improvement.
But since that day, the demon lord command the rapid reform within the army.
As a matter of course, the vampire commander, Nacht, because of his wrongdoing, he was detained and dismissed from the army. Those who were involved in the same wrongdoing also share the same fate.
Though some people who work besides Nacht received smaller punishment depending on how much they were involved.
And the fate of the person who insulted her majesty in public, in other words, I—
“Akira. As punishment for insulting me, Proceed with your reform. I will not let the other guys complained. … Though after participating in that meeting, I bet no one would be brave enough to oppose you now.”
That was what she said.
In other words, nothing changed.
“I felt really terrified you know? To think you would censure her majesty directly like that…”
“It can’t be helped, we only have that method to proceed back then…”
As expected, strong leadership was needed when one wants to execute a bold large-scale reform.
I had none of that, but Her Majesty did.
“Now with this, we could advance. Sofia-san. There’s something I would like you to do, is it okay?”
“You may ask anything, Akira-sama.”
Unlike the usual her, this time, Sofia-san smiled.
– – –
