Chương 108: Chapter 107: The Council of Demon Generals, and a Financial Statement

The Council Hall of the Twelve Demon Lords at Castle Lilith sat suffocating under a thick, oppressive dark aura. On twelve stone thrones carved with beast skulls, the twelve Grand Generals of Tartarus — each nearly three meters tall, jagged horns rising from their heads, wrapped in pitch-black spiked armor scarred from a thousand battles — sat with their arms crossed.

Dozens of greatswords, war hammers, and death scythes, glowing a dark purple, stood driven upright into the stone floor, radiating a savage killing intent violent enough to crack the floor beneath them. The stone door opened. Lucian, in his ash-grey traveling cloak, a small black leather briefcase in hand, walked into the center of the hall at an unhurried pace. Right behind him, Sylvia carried a dragonhide-bound ledger, and Astra calmly finished off her strawberry ice cream bar. BOOM!

Malphas the Violent, a hulking demon over three meters tall with four curved black horns, carried a derived Combat Power evaluation of 3. 8 billion. He shot to his feet. Brutal magical pressure rolled outward, shaking the ceiling.

"A filthy little brat carrying humanity's tainted blood dares show his face in our sacred hall?! Do you think riding on the Fourth Knight's reputation lets you sit above the Council of Demon Generals?!" He swung his war hammer, aiming the head straight at the tip of Lucian's nose.

"Today, before we discuss inheritance, I'll take your head as a sacrifice to bless the legions of shadow—" Lucian stopped half a meter from the hammer's head. He didn't so much as blink. He set the black leather briefcase down on the stone table, unlatched it with a click, pulled out a hundred-page dossier sealed with blood wax, and slammed it down hard onto the shaft of Malphas's hammer. Lucian pulled his magical glasses down the bridge of his nose and opened to page twelve, reading aloud, word for word.

"Malphas von Tartarus. Per Vance Commerce's Q3 accounts receivable ledger:" Last month, your hundred-thousand-strong legion ran a four-hundred-thousand-ton food deficit. You owe my parent company three hundred thousand gold in overdue installment payments for iron armor — six months past due. And two weeks ago, you mortgaged your entire family's Black Radiance Castle for a hundred-thousand-gold cash advance to gamble at a border casino."

Lucian flipped to page twenty-four and thrust a promissory note, bearing a bright red bloody fingerprint, straight into Malphas's face. If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"Your first installment deadline was Monday, last week. If you strike me down, Vance Commerce's risk-insurance contract automatically triggers a foreclosure clause. Your entire Black Radiance Castle and your family's three mining sites will be liquidated at auction in the capital of Solaris tomorrow morning — to human nobility." The brutal aura surrounding Malphas snuffed out instantly, like a match doused in cold water. The massive war hammer in his hand froze mid-air.

He stared at the familiar bloody fingerprint on the promissory note, cold sweat the size of peas beading on his forehead, streaming down through his thick black beard. He swallowed hard, slowly lowering the hammer, his voice shaking.

"That... that... how is that contract in your hands?!"

"Before my mother ran off with my father, her private war treasury established historic liens and debt relationships with all twelve of your houses," Lucian answered calmly.

"Vance Commerce later acquired, refinanced, or consolidated your current obligations through those old connections. Your casino mortgage from two weeks ago was rolled into that network afterward." Ting! A Unified System V2. 0 notification appeared before him. ['READ THE FINE PRINT' SKILL SCANNING THE ENTIRE COUNCIL] Audit results: all 12 Demon Lords hold obligations connected to Vance Commerce; 11 are currently delinquent. Document-backed leverage assessment: high-confidence path to negotiated restructuring.

[DOSSIER EFFECT ASSESSMENT:] Equivalent to a Tax Bureau enforcement officer carrying a property seizure and collateral foreclosure order. Sylvia, standing behind Lucian, quickly pulled out eleven more bad-debt dossiers, setting one down in front of each of the remaining eleven Generals in turn. She pushed her glasses up and swept her sapphire eyes across each demonic face, cold.

"Your debt files are sorted alphabetically. Please review your overdue penalty interest rates carefully." The eleven Generals, seconds ago radiating killing intent, immediately shrank back, hastily hiding their weapons under the table, flipping through their family's debt records with trembling hands. Lucian walked unhurried to the dragonhide-covered chairman's seat at the head of the table and sat down. He crossed his legs, tapped his quill lightly against the black stone table, and spoke, flat and even.

"Now then... would you like to sit down and discuss debt restructuring and opening up your mining rights, or would you prefer I sign the liquidation order and let human merchants come build resort hotels on your castle grounds?" CLANG! Malphas dropped his war hammer onto the stone floor. He and the other eleven Generals all sank to both knees in front of the ten-year-old boy, pressing their foreheads to the marble floor in absolute shock.

"We surrender before the Young Master's audit!"

"Without spilling a single drop of Lady Valeria's mana, he's seized the entire lifeblood of the Demon race by the throat... THIS is the true supreme ruling intelligence of a Lord of Shadow!" Among the kneeling ranks, a young General with elegant silver horns — Belial — slowly lifted his head. He looked at the debt restructuring plan and the convenience-store franchise proposal Lucian had spread out on the table, his red eyes suddenly flaring with a fierce spark of hope.

Belial stepped forward on one knee, clasped his hands together, and spoke, his voice urgent.

"Young Master... please, teach us how to build an economy, and save this crumbling Demon Realm!"