Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 550

Delphine Izadra...

Although I couldn’t say we were close, we were classmates, and after the deserted island mission, she had been quite friendly towards me.

One of the two main heroines who should have survived until the end had died, utterly and unexpectedly.

Ludwig, who could no longer fight, was now likely to become irrelevant in the war. If this meant that Ludwig, who was supposed to lose his life in the original story, was not going to die on the battlefield, then wasn’t that a good thing?

Since I had taken on Ludwig’s role, wasn’t it okay for him to survive?

I couldn’t predict what Ludwig’s absence would mean, and whether he would lose his role in the war remained uncertain. He might still try to fight. But in that case, Ludwig would most likely die.

Trying to fight with his left hand after losing his right was foolish. I hoped he wouldn’t dream of doing such a thing, but the truth was that things were now utterly unpredictable.

I had been shocked by the news from the Royal Class, and ultimately, I couldn’t be the only one who knew this. I had to tell Harriet, Riana, and Charlotte as well.

The three of them looked grim after hearing the news. Charlotte cried for a long while after hearing about Delphine’s death and Ludwig’s injury. They were her classmates from Class B, so the news impacted her on a deeply personal level.

Harriet couldn’t hold back her tears either, and Riana was at a loss for words.

However, we couldn’t just wallow in sadness. We had to move forward. There was too much to do to remain still.

We had to push back our tears, leaving them unshed.

I consciously tried not to think about the Royal Class, and did not mention them any further. Although not mentioning it wouldn’t make what happened disappear, no one talked about it afterward either, even though none of us had promised not to bring it up.

***

The Allied Forces would spend the winter in Serandia.

While we could help ease the weather, Riana’s power wore down her spirit the more she used it.

We couldn’t keep up constant assistance to the Allied Forces, so having them spend the winter in Serandia wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for us. Not just because of the weather, but because they needed time to regroup and reorganize after such a large-scale battle, whether it was in terms of personnel, supplies, or morale.

Although the passing of this frozen winter would not erase the memory of death, I hoped we could at least endure it.

“For the time being, the Allied Forces won’t be active, so neither will we,” I said.

It was winter. If the Allied Forces didn’t move, we had no reason to either.

It might be called a respite; even in war, there would be a few months of rest.

The Allied Forces would use the time to prepare for the next advance, upgrading Titan and trying to recover from the shock, fear, and sorrow from the many casualties suffered.

“Great Being, can we afford not to have a contingency plan for Titan?” Antirianus asked.

I paused for a moment. “A plan?”

“Yes,” he said. “Only the head of the Tuesday clan has seen this Titan directly, but I’ve heard it’s as big as a mountain and can crush hundreds of monsters with a single step. There’s no guarantee that it steps won’t be directed at us.”

“Well, they don’t even know our location. Even if they did, could Titan really cross the sea to get here?” I replied.

It seemed unlikely that Titan was large enough to walk across the sea.

“There are always ‘what ifs’ in the world, aren’t there?” Antirianus said.

“Hmm...” I mused.

Although we were currently helping the Allied Forces, it was true that war could break out between us at any time.

Just imagining myself trying to fight Titan, a golem as large as a mountain, made me feel insignificant.

“I think having a weapon similar to the Titan wouldn’t be a bad idea,” Antirianus suggested.

I sighed at his words. I understood why he was saying this.

“You just want us to create something like the Titan for ourselves, don’t you?”

He gave me a guilty look. “Hmm... Well, isn’t it fascinating? It’s a colossal golem that has never existed before.”

Seeing that expression on an old man’s face made anger rise within me.

Was this all a joke to him? Was this old man approaching this with the mindset of a child wanting a toy? Had he finally gone senile? I had suspected it, but was it actually happening?

“Harriet, can we make something like Titan?” I asked.

“If we had the blueprints and materials, there’s nothing we can’t make. But we don’t have the blueprints, and even if we did, we don’t have the materials,” Harriet replied.

“Well, we could use parts from the existing Titan...” Antirianus began.

“Shut up, old man. I have no intention of making or stealing something like the Titan,” I said.

“That’s a shame...” Antirianus said, looking genuinely disappointed.

“If you suddenly pull some stunt like stealing control of Titan, I’ll make sure you feel what it’s like to have your neck sliced through by a divine sword. Don’t do anything foolish,” I warned.

Antirianus laughed and nodded, but I couldn’t trust him not to do something unexpected.

“But Your Highness, Antirianus’s point about needing a countermeasure against the Titan seems valid,” said Sarkegar, who had returned to Edina.

“Why would we fight something like that? Mindless monsters might charge at it, but we have intelligence and can think. If we’re confronted by that giant, we should run, not think about fighting it,” I argued.

“But what if Titan crosses the sea and makes landfall here? We can’t just abandon this place,” Olivia said.

“Ugh, why are you being like this too, Olivia?” I asked.

“Am I wrong? I’m right, aren’t I?” Olivia replied, sighing deeply as if her worries were endless.

I had anticipated the possibility that we might eventually clash with the Empire, but why was everyone treating it as a foregone conclusion?

But then again, what if a war between our two factions did break out, and they somehow solved the issue of the short operational window? What if the Titan crossed the sea and attacked Edina? What would we do then?

Titan likely had formidable defenses in addition to its offensive capabilities. I couldn’t cut down a mountain, and neither could anyone in Edina.

Would we have to destroy it with a meteor shower?

I found myself leaning towards the idea that we needed a countermeasure against Titan.

“If we assume it can’t teleport, then Titan can’t make it here,” Charlotte said.

“Huh? Why not?” I asked.

“I haven’t seen it myself, but you said the Titan is huge, right?” Charlotte asked.

“Yeah, it’s enormous,” I confirmed.

“Could such a massive thing really make it across the sea in one piece? It would be lucky not to be torn apart by the currents. Don’t underestimate the power of the sea,” Charlotte explained.

“Is that so?”

“And we have mermaids on our side,” Charlotte added.

“What do mermaids have to do with this?” I asked.

“Mermaids can manipulate currents,” Charlotte said.

I looked at her, surprised. “Oh, really?”

Charlotte looked incredulous at my ignorance. “You didn’t know?”

I had never heard this before.

Apparently, the reason why passage between Edina and Port Mokna had been smooth was largely due to the mermaids’ assistance.

While they couldn’t control the weather, they could manipulate the currents.

I rarely interacted with mermaids, so I thought they just caught fish for us, but that wasn’t the case.

Charlotte, who was focused on ruling Edina, seemed to know things I didn’t. The demons recognized Charlotte as the true ruler, and treated her as my equal.

Mermaids weren’t just divers that looked pretty; they had abilities that seemed magical in nature, similar to succubi.

‘Impressive. I’ve chosen well. Although it seems like I’ve slipped up, not knowing what I should have...’

“Anyway, if Titan tries to cross the sea to attack us, the mermaids will drag it down to the ocean floor. It can’t teleport all the way here in the first place,” Charlotte concluded, assuring us that we didn’t need to fear Titan.

Antirianus clicked his tongue in disappointment. It seemed he was very much keen on stealing this Titan.

Sarkegar and Olivia seemed relieved that Titan wouldn’t be attacking the archipelago.

“Anyway, let’s use this time while the Allied Forces are recovering to reorganize. We should also consider what to do if the Allied Forces face a food shortage, even though such a thing is unlikely,” I suggested.

The human army was a massive beast that consumed endless resources, and would continue to do so for a long time. Therefore, the possibility of a food shortage wasn’t entirely out of the question. If that happened, I wasn’t sure how much assistance we could provide.

While the Allied Forces focused on reorganizing, we could rest as well, but time was precious. We needed to find something to do.

“Reinhart, we need to strengthen our forces,” Olivia said.

“Strengthen our forces?” I asked.

“Replenish them, more like. We lost a lot of Death Knights during the Serandia campaign. While we didn’t lose any personnel, we did suffer some losses in terms of strength,” Olivia explained.

Death Knights... Olivia, who wielded the Divine Power of Kier, could summon Death Knights, and they had been a significant force in our preemptive strike on Serandia.

“Can’t you just summon them anytime?” I asked.

“What are you talking about?” Olivia replied, giving me a look of genuine disdain. “Of course I can replenish the ranks of my Death Knights. You can then summon them anytime once they’re replenished. But, well, it’s important to choose the right base.”

“The right base?” I asked.

“Yes. Would a Death Knight created from Reinhart be stronger, or one made from that little kid over there?” Olivia asked, pointing at Harriet.

“Please don’t spout such nonsense,” I replied.

“In short, that weak little kid wouldn’t even become a Death Knight. She would be raised as a tiny, white and frail little skeleton. It’d be cute, though,” Olivia said.

Harriet glared at Olivia in response to her creepy suggestion.

A Death Knight raised from my remains, and a Death Knight raised from Harriet’s... I didn’t want to think about it, but the outcome was obvious.

“In the past, before the Demon God Cult joined our ranks, some of their priests who were equivalent to holy knights chose to become Death Knights themselves. It’s like a knight version of a lich. The Death Knight we saw in Rizeln was probably one of those,” Olivia explained.

“Hmm, that seems logical,” I said.

When the demon god cultists joined our ranks, many of those Death Knights joined us as well, though integrating them into the Holy Order was a headache, since we had to make them eliminate practices like cannibalism and bizarre sacrificial rituals.

They engaged in socially unacceptable acts, and we did everything we could to eliminate these undesirable disturbances. Many Death Knights had been purged during that period of integration, not just because of their ominous appearance, but because they had existed in such a depraved state for so long that their minds couldn’t be changed.

“The Death Knights I summon are those without consciousness, or those whose consciousness has disappeared,” Olivia said.

They were literally undead that existed only to follow orders, with no intelligence of their own. The conscious Death Knights had been purged, and Olivia only retained those who had lost their consciousness and become almost machine-like. These were the ones she summoned in battle, through the power of corruption.

“Anyway, Death Knights don’t just come out of the ground. Well, they do come out of the ground, but if I used up ten of them today, that’s it. They’re gone,” Olivia explained.

“So you’re saying we need to replenish them?” I asked.

“Of course. And it’s best to create powerful Death Knights,” Olivia said, nodding.

“While it’s not impossible to forcefully create Death Knights using Kier’s power, it’s better to have optimal base material to work with,” Olivia added.

Olivia was starting to sound like an evil necromancer.

“So what you’re saying is that we need good materials, right?” I asked.

I wasn’t sure if “materials” was the right term, but what else could they be? The fact that these “materials” were corpses was just slightly unsettling.

Harriet looked aghast. “You’re not planning to use the people who died in the Serandia campaign as materials to create Death Knights, right...?”

The others wore expressions similar to Harriet’s. Even Antirianus was staring at Olivia with his mouth agape, as if he were amazed by such a genius idea.

Many people had died, and among them were exceptional individuals.

It was obvious that using their corpses as materials would result in powerful Death Knights. But was it possible, let alone ethical, to raise fallen soldiers as Death Knights?

“Well, I did think about it, but it might be difficult,” Olivia admitted.

‘So she was considering it...’

“Performing the ritual to create Death Knights in a place crawling with Allied Forces is insane, and since it’s a battlefield, they’ll likely cremate the bodies instead of burying them, right? What do you think, Sarkegar ahjussi?” Olivia asked.

Sarkegar didn’t react to being called “ahjussi.” It seemed like he didn’t care. But wasn’t Sarkegar currently in female form? Why was my Olivia always like this?

“That’s what they’re doing. Cremation is preferred over burial. While some bodies are being sent to the capital for burial, it’s rare,” Sarkegar confirmed.

Olivia nodded. “See, how can you raise a Death Knight from remains that have been burned to ashes? Well, you could force it, but I don’t know how effective it would be. Anyway, doing such things in a place where the Allied Forces and the Order of the Holy Knights are stationed would be suicidal.”

“That’s true,” I agreed.

With so many people still grieving over these deaths, raising the dead as Death Knights would be unthinkable. Trying to do such a thing would be like walking into a death trap.

The temporary nature of the Allied base, the fact that they were resorting mainly to cremation, and the sheer number of people made it impossible to create Death Knights there.

“So, do you have a place in mind?” I asked. Since she had brought it up, she probably had some idea, regardless of its feasibility.

Olivia grinned. “The Imperial Mausoleum.”

‘What? What did I just hear?’

“Many war heroes and great figures are buried there. Let’s raise a few of them and use them,” Olivia suggested.

Charlotte shot up to her feet, her face pale.

“What?! What are you saying?!” she exclaimed.

“I’m not talking about raising useless, weak royals or former emperors. I’m talking about raising those who would be helpful,” Olivia clarified.

“B-but still! Th-that’s... That’s... What kind of...!” Charlotte stammered, her face growing paler. She was unable to accept the idea.

It was like suggesting we use a national cemetery as a production facility for the undead. Not exactly, but it was even more malicious.

Charlotte scoffed at the idea. Her shock was understandable.

Olivia shrugged. “I mean, what’s so special about heroes and great figures, now that the end of humanity is looming? They should rise up if called. They’d probably be grateful to me for giving them the honor of saving humanity, even in death,” she said.

“Crazy bitch...” Harriet muttered, shaking her head in disbelief.