Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 529

In the deep of night, Charlotte retired to her bedroom, and I did the same.

Harriet, having fallen asleep while immersed in her research, was lying with her back against the headboard, a book still open in her lap.

I carefully placed the book back on the desk and gently repositioned Harriet so that she lay more comfortably. Sensing my touch, Harriet smiled in her sleep.

“Reinhart... cat... so... nice...” Harriet murmured as she slept.

“...”

Listening to her adorable sleep talk made me smile.

I fell into my own bed and prepared to sleep. I had given Airi the night off, so she would not be coming.

The thought of being the king of the world was something I hadn’t deeply considered. I didn’t know what to make of it, or how I would act.

The immediate issue was the assassination of Heinrich von Schwartz. It was a complicated issue to intervene in, and Charlotte’s opinion was that recruiting Heinrich was the best approach.

‘A method...’ I had a method known only to me. Though I rarely used it since the world seemed to conspire against me, the function still existed within the system. It was just that I couldn’t predict when or how it might backfire, and its reliability was questionable.

For the first time in a long while, I activated the Revise function.

‘The assassination of Heinrich von Schwartz would not occur.’

[Please specify the date range.]

‘A date range... Of course.’

If I used Revise in such a broad fashion, Heinrich would never ever face the threat of assassination. I needed to specify a timeframe.

I could prevent the assassination from occurring for a week, but then might happen the day right after that grace period expired. Until the root cause was resolved, this was merely a temporary fix.

Perhaps about ten days from now would suffice.

[2000 Achievement Points are required to trigger this event.]

I had accumulated about 30,000 points from wandering the Sren Mountains, so it was doable.

I could ensure Heinrich’s safety for ten days, and possibly for another ten after that. But this campaign wouldn’t end in just a month or two. It would inevitably take a year or more.

Continuing to delay the assassination like this would only deplete my Achievement Points. I already knew that the Revise function couldn’t accomplish anything monumental and that it couldn’t alter crucial events or events that were too large in scope; it was designed to function as a form of support. I couldn’t expect too much from it.

If so, then what about another system cheat I had long forgotten?

[Scribe’s Advice - 150 points]

The Scribe’s Advice was never directly helpful. It usually threw me into unexpected situations, and the advice, even if helpful, often came with a certain amount of risk.

Though I hadn’t used it frequently, perhaps me still being alive was proof that it was indeed helpful.

The first time I used Scribe’s Advice, it had led me to Eleris’s shop, which was the seed from which this entire story had grown, but I hadn’t used it much since. It wasn’t particularly necessary, and it often just confused me.

There was also the suspicion that it might be a trap. I had to be sure I was making the best decision, and if so, then advice with potential traps within them might be better left unread. It might lead to unnecessary complications.

When it came to Ellen, I hadn’t even looked at the Scribe’s Advice, nor did I attempt to use Revise, since it seemed pointless.

But what about now? With Heinrich von Schwartz’s assassination looming, what was the right course of action to take? I hoped it wouldn’t be another piece of advice that only complicated things.

[Clear Scribe’s Advice]

[Do nothing.]

“...”

As expected, the advice only complicated things.

Do nothing? Did it mean leaving things as they were? Was it better for Heinrich to die, or would my direct involvement make things worse? I couldn’t tell.

If I did nothing, then what? Was it better to let him die or leave him alone?

‘If you’re going to give advice, at least finish it!’

The advice was direct, but I could not determine the outcome that would result from following it. It was making my head spin. In such cases, the ambiguous advice tended to be even more frustrating. Was this one of those times?

[Ambiguous Scribe’s Advice]

[Why is Heinrich von Schwartz alive?]

‘What...? What kind of nonsense is this?!’

Was it suggesting that Heinrich’s very existence was an anomaly?

‘My precious 300 Achievement Points... I mean I do have quite a stockpile, but still, those Achievement Points... It feels like a waste...’

I let out a deep sigh.My head hurt, so I decided to sleep.

“Mm, goodnight... goodnight...” Harriet murmured.

I wondered what kind of dream our little Thick-Skull was having.

Was she dreaming of putting a cat version of me to sleep?

Unable to resist, I patted the head of the sleeping thick-skull a few times.

***

It was the dead of night. In the Kernstadt military headquarters, all the other commanders and soldiers had been dismissed. Only three people remained.

“Sister, I’m not sure if this is the right thing to do,” said the eldest son, German von Schwartz, the second-oldest of the siblings.

“What do you mean?”

“Is it right to incorporate that bastard into our army?” Alphonse von Schwartz said, echoing his brother’s thoughts. “Above all, I just can’t stand the sight of that brat. Why should we have to command the army alongside that filthy bastard? Just seeing him act all high and mighty because he’s been getting some recognition lately makes me sick.”

“Haven’t I told you repeatedly not to use that word?” Louise snapped.

German and Alphonse shrank back.

“I’m sorry, sister.”

“Y-yes, I’m sorry.”

“Just mentioning that word can be problematic, even in private. People like us should never utter such ominous words. How many times have I told you that? What if someone hears you?”

If anyone overheard any of the Schwartz royalty uttering the word “bastard,” it would already be a problem. Others might sense that there was an issue within their family.

The brothers were too quick to use a word that would cause problems the moment it was spoken.

The third son, Alphonse, was the first to break the silence.

“Anyway, I don’t understand why we should incorporate that bast—no, that youngest one into our army, sister. His position will only grow stronger.”

“That’s right,” his older brother added. “Wouldn’t it be better to leave him far away with the Temple or the Allied Forces?”

Removing Heinrich von Schwartz from the imperial army and incorporating him into the Kernstadt army carried risks. Under normal circumstances it might not matter, but the bastard’s position was becoming increasingly solid, and the two sons, second and third in line, judged that their own legitimate positions could be threatened.

However, Louise von Schwartz shook her head.

“Whether he returns as a hero or is treated as one here, it would be the same. We are part of the larger system of the Allied Forces. As long as we’re part of one system, there’s no benefit to keeping him far away.”

The two brothers remained silent.

“If something can be used, it should be used. Don’t you agree? Bringing the youngest one to our side means that the general headquarters will require the consent of the Schwartz royal family if they wish to deploy Heinrich for any operation. Do you not understand what this means?”

The youngest one had become too influential to be pushed away using the word “bastard.”

“If someone is useful, their origins and background don’t matter. You have to look beyond the war.”

“Beyond...?”

Louise von Schwartz’s cold eyes gleamed. “Do you think the empire will remain the empire?”

“W-what...?”

“S-sister...?”

The two brothers looked afraid. Those words were almost taboo.

A smile appeared on Louise von Schwartz’s lips. “The empire will continue to exist, of course, as a symbol of humanity’s unity. But there’s no law that says the Gradias Imperial Family must always be the rulers of that empire.

“If Heinrich von Schwartz continues to accumulate achievements as a student of the Temple, a subordinate organization of the empire, it will only prove the empire’s capabilities. He’ll be treated as a talent that had been nurtured by the empire. Heinrich must continue to gain merits, but he must accumulate achievements in the Kernstadt army, under the name of the Schwartz royal family.

“Why should we let the empire boast of achievements that should be ours to claim? The more achievements Heinrich accumulates while wearing the empire’s colors, the stronger the Gradias royal family’s position will become after the war.

“Shouldn’t we claim that position for ourselves? How long will we be satisfied with this mere title of the First Principality? Where is the law that says the Schwartz royal family cannot become the Schwartz imperial family? Why should we perceive this crisis as just a crisis?

“Now that the empire is weaker than ever, the leaders of the empire will be looking ahead to the time when everything is over, so why shouldn’t we as well?

“If a bastard... Yes, if a bastard can help with that grand plan, then by all means. No, we should even pick up the bastard’s bastard if necessary. Is this the time to be concerned with our personal likes and dislikes?”

Alphonse and German gave their sister a strange look. Louise von Schwartz was planning to overthrow the Gradias imperial family after the war and have Kernstadt take over. Incorporation Heinrich von Schwartz into their ranks was just the beginning.

“But sister... the support for the youngest from both the military and the people might increase uncontrollably...”

“After the war... we might not be able to touch him...”

Louise von Schwartz read the fear of an uncertain future in the eyes of her two brothers. As much as they disliked Heinrich, they also feared him.

“I said we would use him. Did I say we would have to go all in with him?”

The eldest daughter, Louise von Schwartz, shook her head as if to dismiss any worry.

“The epic of a hero is always written after that hero lies in the cold ground,” she concluded.

Her expression was cold. It was as if she had already calculated everything out. Alphonse and German held their breath in fear.

***

Sabioleen Tana, who was on a reconnaissance mission, sat on her horse, quietly observing her surroundings.

“This isn’t a designated operational area,” she mused.

Her unit had taken up a good vantage point and were surveying the scene below them. Their role was to scout out the path ahead of the next advance, confirm the density of the monster hordes ahead of them, and strike if it was possible to annihilate them. Ellen had a similar role, but she had been dispatched to a different operational area.

Sabioleen Tana and her unit were in an as-yet-unexplored area that had not been designated as an operational zone by the Allied Forces. No human forces had been dispatched to this place before. However...

Sabioleen Tana surveyed the bodies of monsters scattered across the field in silence. It was as if someone had already swept through the area.

The monsters in this area should not have been culled yet, yet their corpses were strewn about as if a massive wave had swept through the area.

Some monsters were still moving, but they were presumed to have migrated in from other locations only recently.

“Someone other than us... has already swept through this area once, it seems...”

Sabioleen Tana and her unit instinctively knew that something very strange had occurred.

“Return to base. We need to investigate further,” Sabioleen Tana said.

Although she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, Sabioleen Tana had her suspicions as to which faction this mysterious support force belonged to.

.

.

Around the same time, Ellen’s reconnaissance unit also encountered a similar scene.

Their mission was reconnaissance and detection, and if possible, annihilation. If the enemy numbers were too great, the protocol was to retreat and return with a larger force, but since Ellen had learned to harness the power of Lapelt, she had been able to annihilate most of the enemies she encountered.

Therefore, the members of her unit hardly had to exert themselves.

She would sweep away what monsters they encountered with flames, and those who didn’t die in the fire were cut down by her void sword.

She had yet to encounter an enemy who could not be slain by the void sword.

Having overcome the limitation of only being able to engage in close combat, Ellen was like a one-woman army, capable of staggering feats.

“...”

Just like Sabioleen Tana’s unit, Ellen and her unit were observing the remnants of a monster horde that had already been massacred.

Some had been burned to death, others had been cut down, and some had shattered into pieces.

The different manners in which the monsters had died suggested it wasn’t the work of a single person, but multiple individuals.

This mysterious unit, capable of using various types of power, had already dealt with the monster horde.

“It seems all the monsters in this area have already been wiped out. There are still some monsters down there, but in extremely low numbers. It seems they migrated in from other areas after the massacre.”

“Is that so?”

Other members of the unit who had gone further to carry out reconnaissance returned with the same report.

The hordes of monsters along the planned route of advance had been completely annihilated.

Some monsters still remained, but they were presumed to be ones that had wandered in from other regions after the annihilation.

It seems there were unknown forces working with them.

Ellen grasped her necklace with her left hand as she quietly observed the scene.

‘Reinhart... Reinhart...’ she thought.

Ellen felt she knew who was responsible for this.

She clung onto her fading consciousness.

Just thinking that name filled her mind with anger and hatred.

It wasn’t a cursed name. But whenever she thought of the Demon King and Reinhart, Ellen felt a wave of negative emotions consuming every cell in her body.

Sometimes, she would lose consciousness, but she did not faint. It was as if someone else momentarily took control of her body.

They didn’t do anything particularly strange. Whoever it was simply carried out missions, hunted down monsters, and followed military orders, just like Ellen would.

But it wasn’t Ellen. Someone else would be controlling her body.

Although this did not happen that frequently, Ellen subconsciously felt such episodes would only become more frequent.

Clutching the necklace tightly with her left hand, Ellen gazed at the plains upon which the monsters had been slaughtered.

“Let’s go back,” she said as she turned her horse around.

Some already sensed the truth of this unknown situation.

‘Will it be there again...?’

Ellen wondered if that little black fluffball would be waiting when she returned to the base.

The spirits that hated the Demon King neither hated nor disliked the small creature. Thus, just thinking about it didn’t cause the excruciating pain that came with her other thoughts.

Something that did not bring pain just by thinking about it... It wasn’t bad to have such a thing.

Of course, when Ellen returned to the Royal Class camp, the little black kitten was nowhere to be found.

Feeling a little disappointed, Ellen was sullen all day, but for a different reason than usual.

***

Upon returning to the base, Sabioleen Tana shared the situation with the general headquarters, under strict orders of confidentiality.

Unknown individuals were clearing the path ahead.

Sabioleen Tana didn’t mention that she suspected it was the Demon King’s forces. If that information spread throughout the camp, it would only increase confusion.

If such information were to leak out carelessly, it might not accelerate the advance, but rather cause soldiers and commanders to fearfully believe they were walking into a trap set by the Demon King.

The revelation that the Demon King’s army was working for their benefit would end up hindering the army’s advance.

This information had to remain confidential, and even if it became known, it had to appear as if it was the Allied Forces that had made this arrangement.

After reporting this incident to the general headquarters, Sabioleen Tana sought someone out.

Someone who could quickly and accurately get a sense of the situation.

“Frontline reconnaissance...?”

“Yes, I need your power.”

It was none other than the teleporter, Connor Lint.

R𝑒ad latest chapt𝒆rs at freew𝒆(b)novel.c(o)m Only