Supreme Monarch



 As the hall fell silent and marveled at the sight of the leader of the legates from the Darknar region. Keyrille Mayz Jaxith, the demon lord of the Jaxith family stood up from her throne at the end of a short flight of marbled stairs and spoke. 

 She was an aged Demoness but behind her wrinkled face, one could easily tell that she was once a beauty in her day. Adorned by a gorgeous Platinum ceremonial gown, a light blue cape draped over her shoulders as she held a Quantium scepter adorned by colorful gemstones and emanating a tranquil aura. 

 Her demeanor was that of a wise elder with eyes that seem to have seen almost everything. Her expression was hard to read but giving as she smiled at the envoy, everyone in the hall understood that this was someone even the Demon Lord herself showed respect, or at least, mostly everyone. 

 "Lady Rain, do forgive me for not being able to personally welcome you. I'm sure you're already aware of the current state of the Floato region, but let's not dwell on such issues tonight and join us in celebrating your arrival and thanking you for the generous gifts you brought us. We offer our gratitude to the Demon Lord of Darknar. In that respect, everyone please be sure to indulge yourselves to your heart's content, and Lady Rain, I hope you'll enjoy yourself as well." 

 Keyrille gave a gracious smile as she raised her scepter to Rain in invitation. 

"I'm honored by your generosity your grace."

A sweet smile bloomed on Rain's face as she turned to address the other direct descendants of the Jaxith family as well as the Elders. 

Armin's heart completely skipped a beat as he watched the dark elf interact with the ruling family. To the side, he could hear the jealous demoness beside Saleo whispered the words, 'Isn't she being too casual with the royal family? She isn't even trying to be respectful.'

 He couldn't care less about the opinions of demonesses' much less from plain and classless nobles like her so he promptly remove the thought from his mind as he burned the image of the emissary speaking closely with the Jaxith Princesses into his eyes. His mind was only filled with one thought. 

'How?- Just how can I make such a goddess mine.'

He understood that it would be a very difficult task. His family was not of the highest rank of the titled nobles but they were pretty well off. However, even if he was to focus on improving his family's rank within the next week, there was no feasible way he could legitimately court the emissary from the Darknar region without making the entire Jaxith family his enemy. 

 Besides that, even someone as introverted as him could surmise the current significance of a new family suddenly spawning and usurping the name of the former demon king under the noses of the Great Five. 

 Although he didn't really think a family that was just founded could ever hope to rival a family with several centuries worth of history and knowledge like the Jaxith family and the Great Five, he could make an educated guess that the family's current military might could barely rival the Great Fives to make them hesitant in taking action against such levels of disrespect. 

 Although he still had a lot of doubts and believed if the Jaxith family were not in such a desperate situation, they would not be so tolerant of them, there was nothing he could do to change that. 

 With the new Darknar family being considered roughly equal to the Great Five in might, there was no way someone like him would be allowed to court someone with the rank of General from such a family. 

 Still, that didn't stop him from fantasizing about the various possibilities and options. One could say Armin had quite an unusual taste when it came to his interest in the opposite gender.

 He generally found members of the opposite sex intimidating and unappealing as he wasn't attracted to the opposite gender of his own race be it, Lesser demons, ordinary demons, and especially not demon nobles. However, he had strangely garnered an interest in dark elves ever since he met one in the black market as a child.

 Dark elves were not a common race found in the demon continent as almost every single one of them had been taken in by the Great Five after slavery was officially abolished. 

 They were incredibly rare creatures even amongst the elven race as their skills and beauty were aggressively sought out by even the highest-ranking demons. 

 This made the laws against trading dark elves so thorough and strict that one could not even find them in any illegal slave trading organizations so Armin found it almost impossible to find many dark elves to satisfy his fantasies. 

 As far as he knew, the only underground organization capable of trading dark elves was the Northern organization called Numbers. Unfortunately for him, they had not been the most prominent underground organization in the western parts of the Demon continent so it was hard for him to make a consistent transactions with them. 

 In fact, the last transaction he had with them was about four months ago and he had been expecting a dark elf girl for almost three months now but apparently, their slavery division's base in winged city had been destroyed and he didn't get any information on what happened to his package. 

 So Armin had been rather pent up lately as he was tired of his current collection. This was why Armin hadn't chosen to leave his family when he handed over his birthright to his younger brother at the time. 

 He chose to handle the paperwork and managed the family's finances because he needed the funds for his rather expensive hobby. As slave trading was now considered illegal, the underground organizations now charged exuberant amounts of DCs for a common slave depending on the race. 

 However, even though the Great Five were aware of these illegal slavery operations, they chose to ignore it as long as the slaves being traded were not of noble heritage or Dark elves. 

 As such, there weren't that many organizations that would even be willing to go into slave trading much less trading nobles and dark elves. However, Numbers was an incredibly powerful organization with ties with powerful nobles and seemingly unlimited resources. 

 Still, even they were unable to sell many dark elves making their prices soar absurdly high and he was barely able to afford any. 

 As he watched the diplomat interact with the princess of the Jaxith family, Armin felt a wave of heat surge up from his lower body snapping him out of his delusions. 

He hurriedly picked up a beverage from nearby before his fantasies grew out of control. It would be very bad if he got hard here. The cool sensation of the drink sliding down his throat helped him regain a measure of calm. 

 Such luxurious wine.

 Armin gulped down the entirety of the wine in his glass as he picked up another glass from the waiter walking passed him at that very moment. He then took another sip before returning his gaze to the envoy.

 Hmm...

 Having finished her greetings with the Jaxith family. The emissary's leader descended the short flight of stairs at the end of the room to exchange some pleasantries with the nobles but only a few of the Demonesses was approaching her. 

 With his curiosity piqued, he took a glance around and notice that most, if not all of the male demons around her were all awe-struck unable to approach. Even Saleo completely ignored the jealous glares from his partner as he was unable to take his eyes off the envoy. 

 Like him, they all seem to all be taken aback and intimidated by her looks and aura while the noble ladies could not help but ask only questions concerning her dress and makeup. 

 He didn't know why but Armin felt as though the emissary wasn't interested in the topic of choice being thrown her way. While her expression remained the same, he felt as though he could feel a sense of loneliness from within. 

 Normally this was a time for the titled nobles to introduce themselves to her to establish a connection for future opportunities but things seem to have taken a rather unusual turn.

 'Well, this is interesting.'

 Armin shuddered at the idea he had just had.

―No no no Armin, don't think about such dangerous things. Even I'm not that stupid enough to try such a thing on the diplomat from another region. 

He looked at the side of Rain's face. His blood seems to boil as it rushed down his pants. An incredibly risky scheme formulating in his head, and even he couldn't believe what his mind was capable of. 

 Armin smiled.

 'There's no use in denying my desires anymore is there.' 

 With both his father and younger brother gone, there was no one able to challenge his decisions in the family so as long as he could avoid putting his estate in harm's way, there was no reason for him to hold back. It seems being forced to reclaim his birthright and represent his family in events such as this has finally paid off. 

 Armin returned his half-finished drink to the waiter as he hurriedly straighten up his outfit before taking steps forward. Despite his minuscule potential, he wasn't an ugly guy, and neither was he overweight. 

 He was also physically fit due to his family's training and his need to dominate his slaves, especially those that had higher potential than him motivated him to gather powerful magic items from the underground, so he shouldn't cower under the scrutiny of the mighty. 

 Being on the shorter end of the spectrum for Demon nobles, he stood at 5'9, with short curly dark green hair that was styled a bit lazily to the back. His dull grey eyes were covered with a pair of glasses, making him look a bit nerdy but respectable. 

 His gloomy expression and lazy posture had completely disappeared as Armin gathered his nerves, fighting against his crushing anxiety as long as this brought him closer to his fantasies. 

 He knew he needed to be the first one to approach before everyone else began snapping out of their stupor else his weak presence would be drowned amidst the crowd. 

 After all, one could not attain the rarest of jewels without taking risks. Even Saleo had failed to notice him leave his side until he stood in front of the envoy. 

 Armin stopped in front of the horde of desperate Demonesses surrounding Rain and spoke in as a dignified manner as possible. His voice seems to have given up on him for a moment there as this was the first time speaking so boldly in public for a long time now. 

"Pardon the interruption General Rain Darknar."

Thanks to his distinct voice, Rain turned her smile toward him and so did the other ladies surrounding her. 

A glance aside revealed that the ladies and higher-ranked nobles all had shocked looks on their faces.

 For someone as solitary as him, he could not help but feel uncomfortable as he realize all eyes were on him. In only a single sentence he has become the center of attention at the entire dinner party. 

 Despite his nerves rising rapidly, he still maintained full control over his body movements as he gathered up his courage and continued the conversation. 

"Well hello, how do you do―"

Her brows creased for a moment, as though deep in thought. Armin immediately realized what she was looking for.

"Ahh... my name is Armin Heartrail of the Viscount house of Heartrail, but please, you can just refer to me as Armin."

"Oh? Viscount Heartrail. It is a pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure is all mine, General Rain Darknar, but please, call me Armin as I am not yet the head of my household."

 "Is that right."

"Indeed. Nothing could delight me more than to make your acquaintance."

"Then I hope you'll refer to me by name as well."

Armin bowed politely, he was keenly aware that the air around him seemed to have changed. 

 The shocked and curious gazes of the ladies around Rain made the atmosphere around them quite awkward and intense. However, Armin couldn't afford to mess up his plans now.

 For someone like him that generally didn't want to be in the spotlight, he didn't hesitate to risk everything for the sake of his desires. After all, a demon's desires were their entire existence and nothing more. 

 Armin was weak, incredibly weak, and if this was the old world he was sure he would not have survived till now. Yet, Armin did not care for the modern world where demons were forced to suppress their desires and were shackled by the chains of the politics of nobility. 

 This was why it was ironic, the only way for him to satisfy his desires was to leverage the benefits of those same politics and noble titles. 

Although Armin wanted to immediately invite Rain on a tour of Radiance city, which should already be on her itinerary, he wasn't stupid enough to make such a mistake of inviting the Emissary of another region on a date with a mere viscount.

 If he wanted to play with dragons, he needed to be far from the bait. That is to say, he needed to get close to her but not too close, all that mattered was that he was the one pulling the strings.

 "Lady Rain, if you'll allow me to be your escort for the evening, I'll be glad to introduce you to my fellow nobles."

 Although Armin knew he was the least qualified to be given such a responsibility, he had to take his chance before everyone around him snapped out of their stupor and gathered around them. 

 Using his only acquaintance, Earl Korver, he proceeded to guide Rain around the hall to the surprise of many, and successfully establish a connection with the Legates from the Darknar region.