Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 558

We had gone to the Demon King’s Castle with some expectations, but ultimately, we returned empty-handed. However, we did manage to raise seventy-five Death Knights, which Olivia claimed were of the highest caliber.

These Death Knights were far more powerful than the ones we had previously encountered.

While they weren’t the war heroes of the empire, they were certainly not inferior, since they were all heroes of the Order of the Holy Knights who had been canonized.

Upon returning to Edina, we reported the outcome of the operation with those who needed to know, including the Senate.

“The mausoleum was empty...?”

“Well, not completely empty, but it seemed like most of the graves in the Hall of Heroes were empty.”

Charlotte was, understandably, the most shocked.

When I mentioned the body-swapping and how it seemed the empire was doing what we intended to do, Charlotte was left speechless.

“What on earth... could they be planning...?”

“They’ll probably use that force when they feel they’ve reached their limit. We don’t know when that will be, though.”

It was a very powerful army, but using it would inevitably have repercussions. Vertus wouldn’t deploy that army unless it was a dire situation.

Hopefully, such a situation would never arise.

A cornered rat might bite a cat, but humanity, when cornered, would do anything, even if it means spitting on the ethics and morals it had upheld all along.

To survive, one had to do whatever it takes, and this was just one of those things.

***

The operation which I thought would take several days had surprisingly been wrapped up in just one day, Partly due to unexpected circumstances and partly thanks to Connor Lint’s help.

After giving our report, Harriet, Olivia, and I had a late dinner.

Harriet finished her meal quickly and left, saying she was going to see Lucinil. It seemed she planned to learn about the vision of handling souls from Lucinil throughout the winter.

“You should get some rest too, Olivia,” I said.

“I don’t get to do this often, so I want to stay with you a bit longer. Is that okay?” Olivia tilted her head, repeating her question a few times.

Even when she was blatantly acting cute, she couldn’t help but look adorable.

I thought I might get used to it, but some things just seemed impossible to grow immune to.

“Sure, let’s do that.”

I thought we might take a walk, but Olivia seemed to have a specific place in mind.

“Shall we go up there? The place you often go to.”

***

Olivia and I climbed the spire, each holding a cup of warm tea. I often looked down at Edina from this spot.

Even now, when I had nothing else to do, I would still idle away the time up there, although such moments were rare now.

Whoosh!

It was winter, and we were high up and exposed to the elements. A cold wind was blowing about the top of the spire.

“Ugh. It’s a bit chilly.”

We weren’t severely affected by the cold, but the chill was still unavoidable.

Olivia took a sip of her tea and shivered slightly.

“It would be beautiful if it snowed, wouldn’t it?” Olivia said as she looked down at the Raziern landscape on a winter night.

“If it snows, it will only make life harder for the people. I think it might be better if it doesn’t,” I replied.

“Is that so?”

If it snowed, the ground would freeze, which would make daily life more difficult

Olivia looked at me. Her gaze was hard to read.

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s just surprising to see you thinking about such things.”

I did not reply immediately.

Instead of thinking about how beautiful the scenery would be if it snowed, I was considering how people’s lives would change.

At some point, I had lost the ability to appreciate the things around me, and only thought about practicality.

I wasn’t fit to be a king, and I had indeed stepped down from that role, but I couldn’t change the way my thinking had evolved.

“But since you were originally an Archdemon, maybe it’s more fitting for you to think that way.”

“I’m not sure.”

“It’s strange.” Olivia sat beside me, leaning her head against my shoulder. “Looking back, you had so many secrets during your Temple days.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I didn’t bring it up to get an apology. It’s just... how it was.”

“...”

Everything in that time had been a lie from start to finish. Those lies had shaped the current situation, the relationships I had with others, and ultimately, this world.

“I feel like the real you was the one I saw in the Temple.”

I remained silent.

“This Reinhart, who has become the Demon King, somehow feels fake.”

Olivia looked up at me, her head still on my shoulder. “Even though there are no secrets now, you feel more like a fake. It feels like you’re forcing yourself to do something that you can’t. Like you’re trying to wear clothes that don’t fit.”

She took a moment, then continued, “This should be your true self, since you are the Demon King... But I’m not sure. I think it would have been better if you were just Reinhart. The guy with a bad temper. Rough words. Violent, but when someone asks for help, you’d frown, but couldn’t help yourself. You’d end up helping anyone.

“That Reinhart seems like your true self. Living like that, just continuing without any trouble, would have been better. Now, you’re only thinking about pain and trying to endure it. It’s sad.”

Olivia seemed to understand that my essence as the Demon King didn’t suit me at all.

At the Temple, I wore a mask, but with no more need for it, the person I was now should be my true self.

Yet, even though she believed that was what was supposed to be, she still felt that my Temple self was the real me, and that I was now just trying to imitate something that I wasn’t.

I couldn’t be a Demon King, or any king, for that matter. But I had to, so I was forcing myself to do it.

Olivia’s words were exactly what I often thought to myself. Everything was overwhelming because I was trying to wear clothes that didn’t fit.

I didn’t think much of it, but my Temple self was really much closer to my true self.

“Maybe so,” I responded.

Olivia chuckled at my simple answer.

“Did I seem a bit crazy today?” she asked.

I paused. “Today? Is there a day you aren’t crazy?”

Olivia’s eyes widened in surprise. “What?”

‘But it’s true! Today might have been the peak, but you’re usually always crazy! And if you don’t realize that, you’re even crazier! Well... I guess I’m not the one to talk after suggesting we go to the Demon King’s Castle...’

“Tch. You’re so harsh on me. You know you always forgive and adore those kids like Charlotte and Ellen, but you’re only like this to me, right? I’m hurt, you know? Should I tell you everything that’s piled up within me? Should I?”

I was surprised by her sudden reaction. “I’m sorry.”

Olivia suddenly hugged my waist tightly. “But you know what? I don’t really mind that much.”

“Why, why are you doing this...?”

“I feel like you’re the most comfortable around me. And I actually like that a bit.”

She seemed to take my rough treatment as a sign of closeness.

“Even if it’s not true, thinking that way makes me feel a bit better,” she added.

“Huh? What do you even mean by that...?”

Her shift from somber to bright and then back to gloomy was so sudden, I had no idea what to say.

“It means I’m trying, you know. Not to feel hurt.”

“...”

I felt sorry for Olivia in many ways.

Despite having many reasons to feel hurt, she was trying not to.

Olivia had once said she’d be on my side even if the whole world abandoned me, and she was keeping that promise.

When the whole world had abandoned me, the fact that Olivia was always on my side hadn’t changed.

“Actually, considering you’ve saved my life several times, it might be strange to feel hurt,” she said.

“But you saved me too, didn’t you?” I replied.

“That’s that, and this is this.”

‘Isn’t that something you say in the opposite situation?’

When my identity as the Demon King had been revealed, Olivia had used her status and influence to cause a ruckus to save me, and it had indeed been effective.

Of course, Olivia had come to several realizations once she learned I was the Demon King. The question of why the Demon King had killed Leverier Lanche and helped her escape—once that was answered, her trust in me solidified.

The revelation of my true identity naturally caused both Ellen and Charlotte to feel betrayed, while it had the opposite effect on Olivia.

“You know, thinking back, it feels nice that you couldn’t go to the Miss Temple contest because of me.”

“I mean, how could I go to the Miss Temple contest when lives were at stake?”

The gravity of the situation demanded it, even though I never got to see Ellen in a dress.

Even if I were transported back to that time, I would still save Olivia and Adriana instead of attending the Miss Temple contest.

“Anyway, you came for me. That’s what’s important.”

Olivia hugged my waist even more tightly. “Come to think of it, you couldn’t have beaten my foster father back then, right? You weren’t hiding your power or anything.”

“That’s right.”

My people knew I hadn’t hidden any of my power while at the Temple.

I had been truly powerless at the start, and most of the strength and skills I gained had been learned at the Temple.

Olivia hadn’t seen how I’d fought firsthand.

“How did you win?”

“I used the Demon Sword.”

Leverier Lanche was a monster who had survived the storm of fire and lightning, and his heart had regenerated itself even after I had pierced it. There was no way I could have killed him without using the Demon Sword Tiamata.

“Well, you shouldn’t have been able to match him, even with that.”

That was true. No matter what, I shouldn’t have been able to defeat Leverier Lanche.

Of course, the situation favored me, I had a lot of help, and I hadn’t been fighting alone. But even with the Demon Sword in hand, Leverier Lanche was not an opponent I could handle.

“Well, it worked out somehow.”

Using the various means available to me, it worked out. There was nothing more to say other than that.

In the end, I faced an opponent I couldn’t handle and won. It was a reckless move, but I managed to pull it off. I risked my life to save Olivia and Adriana.

Olivia sighed deeply. “You’re a strange one.”

“Not as much as you, sis.”

“Ugh, it’s because you’ve done things for me that I let you get away with being so annoying.”

Olivia said she was trying, and she hugged me even tighter.

The topic of Leverier Lanche should never have come up. After all, he was Olivia’s foster father, and I was the one who’d killed him.

However, the situation was peculiar. Olivia didn’t just lack affection for her foster father; she hated him. She had even brought back his corpse as a Death Knight.

“No matter how you look at it, you and my foster father had a terrible relationship, right?” Olivia said.

I considered this for a moment.

“Looking back, he really did nothing but give me a hard time,” I replied.

“It’s almost impressive, isn’t it?”

Leverier Lanche, the leader of the Order of the Holy Knights... He had fallen from grace because of the truth I’d revealed. Then he tried to use Olivia as a puppet for his Millennial Empire scheme and ended up dead by my hand.

Now, even his corpse had been resurrected as a Death Knight to fight for us.

What a twisted fate. At this point, if Leverier Lanche came back from the dead and put a sword to my throat, I wouldn’t have anything to say in my defense.

Regardless of his morals, I had not only ruined his life, but was also using him in death.

“The funny thing is, none of this would have happened if he hadn’t messed with you,” I said.

“That’s true.”

Olivia was the reason behind all the bad blood between me and Leverier Lanche.

I had to save Olivia from him twice, and I had brought him back from the dead at Olivia’s request.

This connection between us was ridiculous as much as it was chilling. Leverier Lanche had, of course, never been a good father. If he had been, he wouldn’t have died by my hand, and Olivia wouldn’t have resurrected him as a Death Knight.

Olivia had lived her whole life being forced to be a good child, to meet expectations.

She had lived a life where sacrificing herself for others was a given. Of course, Olivia was no longer that person. After various events, the person once called the Saintess of Eredian had grown into someone twisted.

She had now become someone who was selfish, violent, foul-mouthed, even suggesting to do terrible things without a second thought.

“Father wanted a Millennial Empire, you know?”

“He did. He tried to make the Order of the Holy Knights an independent faction, and make the Church the center of this new empire.”

“I never wanted that. I hated it. I had already lost interest in the gods and all that, so why force it on me?”

Olivia quietly looked down at the Raziern landscape.

“Ironically, after Father died and the world started falling apart, I became the leader of a new religious order that combined the Church of the Five Great Gods and the Demon God Cult,” she remarked.

“...”

“It’s strange sometimes—how I once refused to do what Father wanted, yet now I choose to do it of my own will.”

“Do you dislike it?”

“I don’t know if I dislike it, but I don’t particularly like it.” Olivia looked at me. “It’s kind of like you being the Demon King.”

Not liking it, but doing it because it had to be done...

Neither of us were being forced, but we were both doing things we didn’t particularly want to do because we had to. It was like trying to wear clothes that didn’t fit.

“Sometimes I wonder, if things continue as they do, if we might end up at war with the Empire. And through that, either destroy or absorb the Church of the Five Great Gods to become the sole authority over everything tied to this faith. I wonder if that’s even possible.”

It wouldn’t be called a Millennial Empire—but it would be what Leverier Lanche had wanted for Olivia. Somehow, Olivia was getting closer to that vision.

Could it be possible to absorb or destroy the existing Church and plant a new faith in this land?

The possibility of Olivia becoming something like the first Holy Emperor of such a world and ruling all of the land wasn’t entirely out of the question.

“If Father were alive to see this, how happy would he be?” Olivia said, looking at me.

It was a terrible joke with not a hint of sincerity.

“Stop saying crazy things like that...” I said.

“Why? Doesn’t it sound like the typical story of a protagonist who doesn’t understand their parents’ wishes during their lifetime, but only realizes it after they’re gone?”

“Please, just stop...”

‘No matter what, you’re definitely not being a good daughter! Even if Leverier Lanche was a terrible foster father, that doesn’t make you a filial daughter! In fact, you’re even more ruthless now!’

Olivia hugged my arm. “Anyway. The wind is cold.”

As she said, the wind was cold.

It was December, and it would only get colder.

***

No matter how much we strengthened our forces, it would never be enough.

But we had completed the first phase of strengthening, and we began to work on our own internal affairs in preparation for the next allied advance.

Olivia was working with the priests and holy knights of the new religious order to find ways to enhance the existing Death Knights and permanently turn monsters into undead.

Charlotte continued to act as regent, focusing on governing Edina.

Harriet was either conducting her magic research alone or with Lucinil.

And unless I was doing image training with Airi, I didn’t have much to do in Edina.

Charlotte already knew more about Edina than I did, making her a perfectly superior version of me, to the point where I felt I might be more of a hindrance if I stayed.

Therefore, I found myself at the Allied Forces’ base, ready to do what I needed to do next.

Meow.

I turned into a black cat.

I intended to see what had changed and what the current situation was like with my own eyes.