The Executed Sage Reincarnates as a Lich and Begins a War of Aggression

Two hundred days had passed since the deadly battle against the Saint.

I was still sitting on the Demon Lord’s throne.

There were neither invasions from other nations, nor did we invade other nations.

I also didn’t hear any rumors regarding a big war.

This should be the calm before the storm.

In a sense, this was the ideal situation I had aimed for.

While it might only be a temporary thing, I’d like to rejoice for the birth of this peace.

Information was provided on a regular basis by spies sent to various nations.

Apparently, every nation was proceeding with a plan for countermeasures against the Demon Lord.

Most of the details were kept secret and couldn’t be found.

Therefore, the information I got was very short and superficial.

There were circumstances regarding this.

It was caused by Luciana, during her reign as the four heavenly kings of the previous Demon Lord, where she caused too much damage regarding information.

Her hidden intelligence activities caused great turmoil to nations at the time.

Learning from their past experiences, information was being thoroughly managed.

Each nation took multiple measures to prevent inside information from being leaked outside.

It was to the point where one of Luciana's favorite tricks, the ciphers, were being interpreted.

Even so, the fact that information was still being leaked to some extent, was proof of Luciana and her spy squad's abilities.

Because of that, we had managed to grasp the general situation of each nation.

Without such information, there was no way we could have had the leisure to settle down like this.

By the way, I have given them strict orders to prioritize their personal safety.

Information was certainly important.

However, it was not good to be greedy for it and lose their life in the process.

With that, the spies should put their survival as their highest priority.

It was okay for them to take time to provide steady information.

Other than the Demon Lord’s countermeasure plan, each nation had begun to move.

First was the Empire.

They had lost twenty percent of their territory including their capital, but their reconstruction was proceeding smoothly.

It had been said that the nobles whose territories hadn't suffered from the Demon Lord’s army were inclined to help in the Empire's recovery.

There was information that they had made a secret alliance with several other nations.

While it had shown signs of revival, it wasn’t to the extent that it used to be.

In the first place, the empire was a powerful nation blessed with natural and human resources.

As expected, they didn’t stay weak and perish.

Perhaps they would eventually prepare to counterattack against the Demon Lord’s Army.

While I declared them to never resist again, it didn’t mean that they weren’t allowed to retaliate.

It was even better for them to cooperate with other nations.

The current emperor seemed to be a relative of his predecessor.

He didn’t seem to be militaristic, and was rather concentrated on solidifying his nation’s foundation.

I hoped that he would keep up and build a better nation.

Next was the Holy Scepter Kingdom, which wasn’t as serious as the empire.

It wasn’t like their territory was invaded by the Demon Lord's Army to begin with, so they had only suffered minor damage.

The Nation itself possessed quite a lot of military power, and there was still power left with it.

They wouldn’t collapse just from the loss of a mere Saint.

However, there was trouble on the other side.

With the loss of tens of thousands of troops including the Saint, it undermined the absolute authority it had.

Some of their citizens began to harbour doubt, and their domestic security began to decline.

For the Holy Scepter Kingdom which was built on top of dignity and people’s faith, this was considerable damage to them.

Perhaps to overcome that situation, the Holy Scepter Kingdom regularly announced the progress of Demon Lord’s countermeasure plan.

They also widely promoted Sacred Magic and the birth of a new Saint.

Most of those things were merely rumors and lies, but the Holy Scepter Kingdom enthusiastically repeated the announcements.

Perhaps it meant deterrence against other nations.

Their vanity was so great it made me impressed instead.

While they took such a strong stance, there was no sign the Holy Scepter Kingdom had actually invaded.

They lost tens of thousands of soldiers, including the Saint who was backed by the world’s will.

While they did possess reserve military strength, it wasn’t something they could easily dispatch.

If they were defeated once again, the fame of the Holy Scepter Army would be crushed.

It was something that the nation's executives wanted to avoid at all costs.

So their movement turned cautious now.

Regardless of the reality of the Holy Scepter Army, it was good that they were now concentrating solely against the Demon Lord's Army.

For the time being, they would, at most, show off their vanity without actually doing something big.

It should be enough to continue monitoring them.

What was certain was that the Holy Scepter Kingdom hadn't given up on defeating the Demon Lord.

They would eventually fight back.

They would come out stronger when they invaded next time.

I must be careful about that.

Currently, I had no plans of destroying the Holy Scepter Kingdom.

Whatever their idea was, they did move closer to my ideal.

I wouldn’t have any complaints if they attempted to cooperate with other nations, but it seemed unlikely for now.

The executives of the Holy Scepter Kingdom all had a strong self-esteem.

They seemed to be looking down at other nations.

They seemed reluctant to cooperate with people who didn't belong to the same nation as them.

This wasn’t something that could be solved in a short time.

They might change their minds if we invaded them to the point of no return, but there was only little to be gained from such action.

While it was an action fitting for a Demon Lord, I had no wish to destroy the world.

My aim behind the destruction of nations was to encourage human unity.

I needed to consider the degree of destruction it caused.

A deep despair, huh.

I remembered what Saint Makia had pointed to me back then.

I did have some degree of hatred against humans.

That was, without a doubt, the truth.

But that didn’t mean that I would get dragged around by my personal feelings.

If revenge was all I aimed for, I would destroy the world as quickly as possible.

By then, nobody could stop me from doing so.

I would become the Demon Lord by true meaning.

I should dominate my own mind.

I should keep conscious of what path I wish to take.

I inherited that person’s ideal.

I should never forget about that.

“Demon Lord-sama, may I have a bit of your time?”

Grom called out to me as I thought about myself.

There were organized documents beside him.

Did he have some problem?

“What is it?”

“We had made an appointment to inspect the laboratory today. It’s about time. What should we do?”

I remembered it now that Grom told me.

I was inspired by the magic workshop I saw at the imperial capital, so I built a similar facility at the corner of the capital.

It was responsible for developing weapons, forming ideas and manufacturing various magic tools, with the goal of strengthening the overall power of the Demon Lord's Army.

Today was the day of the inspection.

While I gave various ideas and policies at the beginning, I haven't gotten much involved recently.

I left all the responsibility of personnel and construction to my subordinates.

I did hear that there were no major problems, but I wonder what form the end result took?

I was interested about that, even without my position as the Demon Lord.

I stood up and beckoned Grom to follow me.

“Let’s go.”

“HAH! Certainly!”

Grom put the document down and walked behind me at amazing speed.

He seemed so happy to the point that the flame in one of his eyes blazed greater.

While Grom was always busy, he was still energetic.

Perhaps it was because the undead felt no fatigue.

He seemed to like to work, as any typical working person.

I heard he sometimes served his cooking to the cafeteria of the castle town.

Unlike his terrifying appearance, he seemed to be loved by his subordinates.

Perhaps he was more supported than I was.

…I also need to think of something as well.

The Demon Lord was a symbol of fear and destruction.

However, I didn't think it was right to even have a subordinate feel like that.

While I wouldn’t become a good king, I wished to be trusted as a person at least.

I was very ignorant about this thing.

I needed to ask the opinion of the other executives about it.

Maybe I would casually ask about that at the next regular meeting.

While having that little worry, I left the room with Grom.