F-Rank Puppeteer!! But I'll be Queen, and I'm not a narcissist!!!!!-Chapter 196: Grace Causing Trouble

"So, Your Majesty, oh Demon King Lysaon, this is your agreement?" The human representative asks me, looking over the papers I handed to him. Thanks to Grace getting along well with Marie, I’m managing to secure a good deal with the humans.

"Exactly. All I desire from humans is for you to produce these ships here for me." Even if Evelyn, Lucien, and Laplace manage to capture the Bridge, it still doesn’t guarantee perfectly stable travel.

We need the ships for that, and the humans are the best choice. And I believe I’m offering a fair proposal.

"Well, our... ’engineers’ have said it’s entirely possible to mass-produce this warship you want, but the cost of materials is quite high, and the labor is equally expensive..."

"I see the payment is good, but it doesn’t cover the material costs..." He keeps making these idiotic insinuations instead of just saying he wants more.

’This is why I hate negotiating with these human worms...’ They drag things out so much. I know they’re afraid, but still, if he doesn’t speak up, we just waste more time.

"How much?"

"Huh?"

"I said, how much?"

"O-Oh, well, the costs still need to be calculated based on the number of ships, and the expenditure of monster items and materials to generate the ship’s protection. As Your Majesty must know, the ocean is full of monsters."

"It’s the most monster-infested place in the world, having even more monsters than the demon continent itself. The ships you desire need to withstand, repel, and even kill those monsters without taking damage and without expending the ship’s own resources."

"The magic required for that is truly very costly and..."

"Stop stalling. I don’t need to know how difficult it is. I just need to know if you can do it, when you can do it, and how much it will cost to do it." I say, already irritated. This negotiation has already dragged on for over a month. If I were negotiating with another demon, it wouldn’t have lasted even two weeks.

’At least the cost won’t come out of my pocket.’ I’m paying for this with the money I obtained from Evelyn’s family, so my kingdom’s treasury won’t suffer the impact of the war. In other words, Evelyn’s family is indirectly footing the bill for these ships. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"O-Okay, Demon King Lysaon... s-so, about the monster cores..." He rubs his hands together greedily, but I immediately say something that will shatter that greed.

"Tell your king that I know his hero is sleeping with my daughter." When I say this, the human representative shudders. He falls silent for a moment, thinking about how this affects the negotiations. And it affects them greatly.

Grace, as a human and a hero, directly represents the humans. If she does something wrong, the blame affects her entire race as well. And there she is, sleeping with the daughter of a continent’s king.

The weight of this is enormous, especially if she doesn’t want to take responsibility. After all, a demon’s virginity is important for marriage, since the first sexual encounter that takes a demon’s virginity alters the functioning of the Hikishin in their body based on the other party’s Hikishin.

"T-That is... h-hahaha, of course, we will look into this and..." I toss a photo onto the table before he can try to evade responsibility. Grace and Marie might think I don’t know anything, but I know everything. I’ve kept an eye on Grace since she arrived on this continent.

"I-Is this..." He looks at the magically taken image. It’s clearly their hero having sex with my daughter. The magic confirms it’s a genuine, real photograph and not some magical illusion.

"There’s no need to look into anything. I know perfectly well what she’s doing. Or are you saying that I, the Demon King, am lying about this?"

"N-No!! Never! I-It’s just... unusual..."

"Unusual? What exactly? It’s not as if your hero hasn’t slept with various other noble girls from your own continent." Do they really think I never investigated that human? How pathetic.

"H-Hahaha, of course, of course. She is certainly someone well... experienced."

"Yes, ’experienced’ is a great word for it."

"So, I believe this is good, right? It means the bonds between us humans and the demons are stronger than ever!" He tries to spin how the situation looks into something favorable for both sides.

"Yes, it’s certainly great." I smile, even though he can’t see it because of my armor.

"Then we will accept your agreement. Of course we will accept. It’s perfect as it is. We will soon pass the cost estimates for the ships to you for review, and they will be delivered to you." He begins signing the contract. After all, now their hero has done something that puts them at a huge disadvantage.

’Perhaps I could have gotten more...’ This was so irritating and long that I didn’t even want to try to get more, even though I could.

"..." I watch as the human representative bows and withdraws after signing. I pick up the incriminating photo and burn it. It’s no longer useful now.

"I don’t know whether to praise Marie for managing to facilitate this agreement, or to be disappointed that she chose to stay in this stupid secret relationship with the human hero." I get up to go rest.

We are currently in a neutral location for the negotiations, so we’re on an island at sea, where neither side can easily ambush the other.

"I wonder how many more days this will take..." Probably a week and a half until they finally come back with the price report for everything. And then I’ll just accept it and leave, even if it’s expensive, because I’m busy and shouldn’t be here wasting time.

"Maybe..." I suddenly have an idea. A truly good idea. An idea that will help a lot with both the war and the competition for the throne.

"It all depends on the single negative variable..." Esther is now the only thing that could hinder this idea I just had. But still, I’m sure she’ll notice, and she won’t get in the way.

"Yes... excellent... this will be perfect. I might even retire early." I can’t wait to stop being the demon king and disappear somewhere.

"I just need to prepare the shadows so they do everything correctly..."

...

...

...

"Y-You said Grace did WHAT!!?" I ask, alarmed, to my subordinate, who just told me how the negotiation with the demon king went.

"Your Majesty, the Demon King said, for me to inform you, the Human King who is currently trying to do business with him, that... well... the Hero Grace has slept with his daughter... and he has a picture of it..."

"..." I shuddered all over.

"THAT SLUT ACTUALLY DID THAT?!" I slam the table, standing up in anger. Wasn’t it enough that this damn woman slept with my daughter and a bunch of other noble girls? Now she did it with the demon king’s daughter of all people?

Doesn’t she know a political war or retaliation could start because of this?! Is she insane? Out of all the girls, she had to do it with a princess?!

’If I could, I’d kill that horny bitch!!’

"W-What did the demon king say about it?"

"Not much. It seems he wants to keep it private, provided, of course, he gets some advantage from it..."

’If this becomes public, the problems I’ll have...’ No one can know about this!! If they find out she messed up again, I’ll lose even more power! Last time they found out what she did, I lost a lot of power, causing several nobles to gain more and reducing what I could do.

If they find out that under my command the hero messed up again, and with the demon king’s daughter no less, I’ll lose so much power I’ll hardly have any control over the great nobles left.

"..." I wipe the cold sweat from my forehead. I’m extremely nervous about this.

"C-Carriage!! Did the demon king say anything about marriage?! If the hero marries the princess, our problems would be solved!!"

"He didn’t say anything directly, Your Majesty, but he implied as much. That a marriage between the two would be good, since he agreed when I spoke of the bonds between humans and demons."

"...Great... then we’ll have to see how this plays out. Attempt to contact the hero urgently!! She MUST propose to the princess! If people find out about this while they aren’t married, the problems will become an avalanche!"

’It doesn’t matter what that damn girl says, she will marry that princess even if I have to force her.’ And I know how to force her, oh yes, I certainly do. She won’t want all those commoner friends of hers to be killed. Even if I have to torture them and send her their fingers, she will make that marriage proposal and fix this mess she caused.

"Sigh... gather the church’s paladin group, and send them after those commoners who are friends of the Hero Grace. Bring them to the castle and for now... keep them well." I’d only hurt them if Grace refuses to respond or sends a reply denying she’ll resolve the problem.

She will fix this mess this time. I sent her to another continent precisely so she’d stop causing trouble, but this idiot with no sense of danger causes trouble with the one person she shouldn’t.

"Immediately, Your Majesty. I’ve also already ordered our engineers to calculate the ship costs. They will be delivered to the demon king shortly."

"Excellent!! Speed that up as fast as possible!" We don’t have all this time! I still have other matters to resolve.