Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 553

We left the unmarked cemetery and waited for nightfall. Once night descended, we would curse this land and use the power of corruption to resurrect the dead, turning them into our army.

Loyar and Mr. Effenhauser would be exceptions, and there was no justification for it. But we had decided to do it, so we would.

However, an unexpected situation arose. More and more mourners appeared, and an increasing number of them were in military uniforms.

It wasn’t unusual for people in military attire to be in the capital, but it was certainly strange for so many to come to the national cemetery at the same time. They all had the expressions of people who had returned from a long journey, an expression I often saw on those who were with the Allied Forces. They were mostly returning soldiers.

“Were they given group leave because the operation to occupy Serandia is over?”

“It seems so...”

The Allied Forces planned to lay low until winter passed. While not everyone could return to the capital, it was clear that some, including high-ranking officials, had been granted the privilege to return.

There were many places that those who had been away from the capital for a long time might wish to visit first, but this national cemetery housed the graves of soldiers, knights, and mages who had fought and died in the Gate Incident.

It was perhaps only natural that those associated with the Allied Forces would visit this cemetery. The campaign against Serandia was not supposed to have been conducted in winter, and when it came to winter in other regions, the Allied Forces would choose to hold their ground, keeping up a continuous battle of attrition to defend their encampment through the winter.

Now that Serandia had been pacified and the monsters around it completely eradicated, the Allied Forces had secured a relative amount of safety. Since the camp was relatively safe, higher-ranking individuals or those seen as special were allowed to spend the winter in the capital or their homelands, if they were safe. Soldiers were being returned back to the capital via mass teleportation. Of course, such authorization was on an individual basis.

For these returning soldiers, the national cemetery was an obvious place to visit. It was where their comrades rested, and so many of them would want to visit, whether in groups or individually.

Special privileges had been given out to these soldiers after a long campaign, and mass teleportation wasn’t a privilege that just anyone could enjoy. Therefore, it was likely a privilege for high-ranking military officials, imperial commanders, nobles, high-ranking knights, clergy, mages, and members of the Royal Class.

***

Magic that interfered with cognition and perception wasn’t foolproof. Skilled knights and high-ranking mages could see through magic without even casting a spell.

The same applied to invisibility and all other types of concealment magic. No matter how sophisticated the trick, there was no trick that could fool everyone.

There were even rare individuals who were resistant to supernatural powers. I was one of those. Thus, there was no magic that could deceive everyone’s eyes.

Of course, Harriet could perform high-level concealment magic, but if she cast it clumsily, it might draw suspicion.

Those visiting the national park might not know magic, but given the variety of people visiting, there could be those who could see through our perception-interfering magic. I could disguise myself by transforming, but Olivia and Harriet couldn’t.

We could avoid the eyes of the unspecified military personnel coming in for a while, but we didn’t know when we might be discovered. It wasn’t the wrong place for us to be in, but it surely was becoming one.

“We should leave for now. If one of the imperial mages suddenly spots us here, it could be trouble.”

“Yeah, we should.”

We needed to leave before more dangerous people arrived at the national cemetery.

There was originally no such thing as being granted leave while in the Allied Forces.

However, judging by those entering the national cemetery, it was clear that the Allied Forces had placed significant importance on this victory. From the ranks of the soldiers entering, there were quite a few who were not even commanders, which indicated that the Allied Forces were granting leave on a broad scale. Honestly, given what they had achieved in the last battle, it was inevitable.

***

The three of us left the national cemetery before we caught the eye of someone troublesome. Olivia and I sat idly on a half-broken bench in a quiet park nearby.

Pop!

“I’ve checked it out, and the Allied Forces are continuously returning from the plaza in front of the imperial palace. It seems they’re using mass teleportation," reported Harriet, who had quickly scouted out the situation surrounding the returning troops through short-distance teleportation.

Olivia clicked her tongue, annoyed by the poor timing. “The Allied Forces seem quite thrilled with this victory, huh?”

Many had died, but it had not been a defeat. In fact, it was a victory, and it necessitated some rest.

“It’s probably to boost morale,” I said. “The sacrifices this time were significant.”

The situation had stabilized, and the army would be taking a long break. They would send back as many of those who wanted to return to the capital as possible, as if handing out free tickets. It would take some time to redeploy them once they returned to the battlefield, but the Allied Forces wouldn’t be sending back an overwhelming number of troops anyway.

“Wouldn’t this make the ordinary soldiers who aren’t allowed to return even more depressed...?”

Harriet seemed unsure if such a move would truly benefit morale, regardless of how it affected our plans. Did she think that only sending high-ranking officials back to rest in the capital would cause the other soldiers to feel disgruntled?

Olivia chuckled at Harriet’s reaction.

“Do you think many of them have a place to return to? Most would probably say they don’t want to go back even if they were given the option to. Didn’t you see the situation earlier? You can’t even beg for food properly in this city. If the capital is like this, what about the other cities that are still standing?”

“Oh... that’s true...”

Not everyone was from the capital. Those who joined the army out of fear of starvation might actually fear leaving the army.

Many ordinary soldiers might find the garrison, where they were given food and a place to sleep, more comfortable than their hellish hometowns in the capital or other parts of humanity’s remaining territories.

For the battlefield to be more comfortable... The reality for most of the soldiers that made up the Allied Forces was that even if they wanted to return home, they had no place to go back to, making it impossible to enjoy their leave.

Very few would actually want to return to the capital, which might be why they were letting even lower-ranking soldiers return to the capital.

“Anyway, it’s a problem. It would be one thing if there were just ordinary mourners in the cemetery, but now, we can’t know when someone important might be in the cemetery, or where.”

Not only were there more people visiting, but there was no guarantee that there wouldn’t be Master-class individuals or high-ranking mages among them.

“If we try once and get caught or something goes wrong, they’ll tighten security, and we won’t have a second chance. Of course, we could just kill everyone and proceed with the ritual, but you wouldn’t allow that in the first place, right, Reinhart?”

“Unnie... that would defeat the purpose of us raising these Death Knights in the first place...”

“Whatever. You’re saying you won’t allow it, right? Once the Allied Forces begin their advance again, they won’t have the capacity to pay attention to this, but by then, we’ll be busy too, so we won’t have time...”

“Damn, we should have come a day earlier...”

What’s done was done, but at this rate, things could drag on endlessly. As Harriet said, raising these Death Knights to save lives, only to have to kill everyone in the national cemetery to raise them, was not just bad; it completely defeated the purpose.

“There won’t be that many mourners at night, so the number of people in the cemetery will decrease significantly. But still, there’s always something unexpected. Given the situation, we have to recognize that the combat power of the human forces within the capital has significantly increased. If a commotion breaks out... you know what’s going to happen, right?”

“Yes, I suppose.”

High-ranking officials weren’t just powerful in terms of the authority they wielded; there was a high possibility that knights from Shanapell or imperial mages had returned. If an unavoidable fight broke out, things could go awry. Harriet could get us out, but there was always “what if.”

There would certainly be fewer people in the national cemetery at night. However, there might be a few who were dangerously strong or capable of seeing through our ritual. Perhaps it would be better to wait until winter passed and they left the capital before attempting it again.

The national cemetery was vast. Even if there were only one or two people there, someone might see the Death Knights rising up through the ground or breaking through the coffin lids once Olivia started the ritual to raise them.

“Let’s change the order of things.”

“The order?”

“There are currently more eyes in the national cemetery, but there’s one place that wouldn’t have changed much.”

A place most ordinary people couldn’t even enter...

“The imperial mausoleum. Let’s hit that place first.”

Even though many soldiers were on leave, that place would have very little human presence. It would take time for our actions to be discovered.

We would first target the imperial mausoleum, then return to this place.

***

I had been helping Vertus unilaterally, but I had never sought Vertus’s permission. What we were about to do was crossing a line, a big one.

After this, if Vertus tried to kill me in earnest, I wouldn’t have much to say.

There was no difference between the national cemetery and the imperial mausoleum. If I said I was going to resurrect the corpses from either place as Death Knights to bolster my power, Vertus might bite his tongue and die on the spot.

Since my help was unilateral, I would also take what I wanted unilaterally.

The national cemetery had seemed an easier target, but because of the situation, things there had become more complicated. With more eyes, the risk of being discovered increased, and those eyes were likely to belong to formidable individuals.

First, the imperial mausoleum, then the national cemetery... Secure the Death Knights and escape.

“Now we have to infiltrate the imperial palace...”

We were in the north part of the capital, so we could see the massive walls of the imperial palace, Emperatos, to the south, with its physical and magical fortifications.

The magical barrier was on par with the one surrounding the Temple. It was so strong that when fully activated, it could block a significant number of meteors.

Moreover, there was also a barrier that blocked the entry of demons. Sarkegar and I could pass through after transforming, but Airi couldn’t.

Of course, Charlotte, who was practically half-demon, had lived there without issue, so we presumed that it could be temporarily deactivated or wasn’t a concern for anyone inside.

Charlotte had shared a few methods for infiltration.

First, the underground waterway.

“You could approach the palace sewers through the waterway, but the empire isn’t foolish. The waterway is, of course, fortified to prevent people from passing through, and while I don’t know if dispelling the fortifications is possible, it might be a possible point of entry. At least it isn’t a very visible place.”

There was a possible weakness. But it was fortified, and that fortification was certainly not ordinary. It was equipped with alarms, and according to Charlotte, the sluice gates themselves would be difficult to breach.

If we managed to breach it, we could enter the palace without anyone noticing. The only uncertainty was whether or not this fortification could be breached.

Charlotte, who was herself a royal, knew the possible infiltration points and had made plans to prevent them from being breached. The fact that Charlotte might know a way to sneak into the palace was, to begin with, nonsensical.

“We could also hide in a carriage carrying tributes or offerings entering the palace... but we’d have to avoid detection at the checkpoint. And we’d have to disguise or bribe whoever was driving the carriage, so if something goes wrong, not only would we be in danger, but we’d also drag innocent people into it...”

“That’s true...” Harriet said with a sigh.

“I could just knock out someone with access to the palace, steal their ID or whatever, and enter, but it wouldn’t mean anything if I went in alone...”

Using tributes, getting the appropriate IDs, or using the waterway...

We could also disguise ourselves as someone’s servant, but without connections to the imperial family, it was impossible.

Of course, asking Vertus to open the door because we wanted to raid the imperial mausoleum was out of the question.

“If none of these work, we could enter the underground waterway, make our way to the appropriate place, and then in the worst case, dig through the ground and break through from below, but that would trigger the barrier. Ultimately, we need to find a way in through magic.”

Even if Harriet was practically all-powerful, asking her to nullify the palace barrier without knowing its workings was too much.

Magic couldn’t solve everything.

All the methods Charlotte could think of were already countered. She could not enter the palace herself either, even if she wanted to help.

“If you’re saying none of this works, then how were you planning to enter the palace?” Olivia said as she pursed her lips.

“It’s not that it can’t be done. It’s just dangerous,” I replied.

Ultimately, it was a matter of possibility, not impossibility.

It was just dangerous, and it would be better if it were discreet.

“So, is chaos the only solution? If we were here a day earlier, maybe that would have worked, but now the scale of our distraction would have to be bigger.”

There was no guarantee we’d die, but there was no guarantee we’d escape either.

There was no need for excuses. If we were caught trespassing in the imperial mausoleum at an unexpected time, any explanation we could offer would be nonsense.

We were genuinely going to do something bad, so persuasion was meaningless.

“Magic can’t get us in, right?”

Harriet paused, then said, “I don’t know a possible method, so realistically, no.”

Teleporting into the palace via magic was impossible.

There was only one method left that was the safest.

“Let’s use supernatural powers.”

If magic didn’t work, we could use supernatural powers.

“Supernatural power...? Don’t tell me you’re serious...”

“Yeah,” I responded. “We ran into him not long ago, right?”

We needed Connor Lint.

“I’m not sure if he’s arrived yet, but we agreed to meet up at a certain place. Let’s head there. He might already be there.”

Harriet tilted her head, looking bewildered. “An agreement? Did Lint agree to help us with this? When? Did you visit the Allied Forces’ base before this? When did you have time for that?”

“No? I never made an agreement with him.”

“What? Then who did you make an agreement with?”

“Sarkegar.”

Olivia and Harriet’s expressions began to sour.

I had no time to talk to Connor Lint in the first place. I had only made an agreement with the person who was supposed to bring him. Of course, regardless of his own will.

“Wow...”

“Our Reinhart never changes in some aspects...”

Olivia and Harriet couldn’t hide their expressions of disgust.

***

The meeting place was none other than the former headquarters of the Rotary Club—the underground sewer beneath the Bronze Gate Bridge.

“You crazy bastard! What do you expect me to do?!”

There was Connor Lint, who had clearly been brought against his will, being held by Antirianus. And there was Sarkegar, disguised as a female soldier of the Allied Forces, one I hadn’t seen before.

“I need you to help with something,” I said.

The scale of the operation was very different from before.

I draped my arm over his shoulder, and his face turned pale.

“D-don’t touch me, you pervert!”

Of course, Connor Lint was also disgusted in a different way than before.

“Hm?”

“...?”

Everyone else had no idea what he meant by “pervert.”

***

“W-why should I help you?!”

Connor Lint’s voice, filled with all manner of fear, echoed through the sewer. With no Rotary Club and all the refugees relocated to the shelters, there was no one living under the bridge, so no one would hear him no matter how he shouted or how his voice echoed.

“Because you’re the only one who can help in this situation,” I replied.

“Is that the attitude of someone asking for help?”

Only a few special individuals could block supernatural powers. Infiltrating the imperial city would be a piece of cake for Connor Lint, who could also bring others in with him.

“Didn’t you come here after hearing what we were trying to do? You wouldn’t have come if you didn’t want to help,” I said.

“I wouldn’t have come if I knew it was about this!”

“What? Then what did you think it was abou—”

It was then that I finally looked clearly at Sarkegar, who was standing beside Antirianus.

He was disguised as a young female soldier of the Allied Forces—he looked youthful, and undeniably pretty.

“Don’t tell me that what I’m thinking right now is actually true.”

‘Did this guy seriously fall for this again?’

“No! No! Whatever you’re thinking, it’s not that...!”

Rustle... Rustle...

“W-what... What’s happening?”

As Sarkegar transformed from the appearance of a female soldier to that of Count Argon Pontius, Connor Lint’s face turned white

‘You’re seeing something like this for the second time now, huh?’

Sarkegar, having transformed fully, grinned. “It was easy, Your Highness. When I asked for help, he followed without question.”

Connor Lint had seen a pitiful, pretty girl who had been conscripted at an age when she likely did not know anything about fighting. It was a sight that would have torn his heart to pieces.

“Again... Again... I got fooled again...” Connor Lint muttered in a daze.

“Some parts of you never change, do they?”

It wasn’t me who said that, but Harriet. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Connor Lint’s face turned red. “No! I help anyone who asks for help!” he shouted. “It’s not, it’s definitely not that...! D-damn it...”

He sighed in defeat. “Yeah! I get it! Now I know that all these girls who get tangled up in my life are just like you guys! Damn it! I won’t be fooled anymore!”

‘Come to think of it, isn’t Connor Lint the biggest victim of my misdeeds?’

Olivia looked confused. “Does he experience this often?” she asked. “What is he talking about?”

“Who knows?”

Naturally, Olivia and Harriet tilted their heads at his bizarre statement.

“Th-that’s... something you don’t need to know!” I said as I glared at Connor Lint, warning him that I’d kill him if he said any more.