Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 561

Ellen appeared peaceful only when she was asleep. It was the only time she seemed free from worries and concerns.

However, that peace was short-lived, as she quickly began to sweat and writhe in discomfort even as she slept.

It was inevitable that she would have nightmares. While I intentionally subjected myself to nightmares created by Airi, Ellen had them involuntarily.

They were unavoidable, whether due to the vengeful spirits trying to consume her, the countless deaths she had witnessed, or her own guilt.

“Ugh...”

I felt sorry for the cold sweat beading on Ellen’s forehead, but I was not Airi.

All I could do was move closer to her and curl up beside her.

Strangely enough, Ellen hugged me in her sleep, and just like that, she soon began to breathe more evenly.

‘Is this some kind of animal therapy... or something like that? Of course, we’re a bit... well... too close... So, um, yeah... nevermind!’

***

The next day, Ellen woke up with bleary eyes and sat up.

Meow.

Ellen looked down at me.

This sight, though unsettling, had become something I was used to.

Her eyes were empty, as if her consciousness had been consumed by something else.

She moved more like a machine than a person. Ellen stared at me for about three seconds before turning her gaze away and getting up.

Something other than Ellen was moving her body.

Communicating with her in this state was still possible. I knew she went on missions in this state and always returned safely.

Ellen, with her vacant eyes, went into the bathroom, washed up, got ready, and donned her inner garments before activating the armor stand.

Clank! Clank!

The joints of the armor connected automatically. Ellen was clad in the splendid armor of humanity’s hero.

The cloak of the sun and the sword of the moon were summoned, draped over her shoulders and buckled to her waist.

Without looking back at me, Ellen left the tent.

Would Ellen’s consciousness eventually disappear if this continued? Already, the periods in which she managed to keep hold of her own consciousness were growing shorter and shorter.

However, there was nothing I could do about it. It was impossible for me to forcibly extract the spirits residing within Ellen’s body. Only Lucinil could do that, and even so, she required the assistance of all the other Vampire Lords.

Besides, even if I begged them to, neither Lucinil nor the Vampire Lords of the Senate would perform the ritual. Antirianus especially, would surely refuse or interfere.

Even if they were extracted, someone would have to bear the burden of that massive collective of vengeful spirits. Whether they entered the body of someone who hated me or someone who loved me, it would still pose a problem.

The fact remained that Ellen was the best candidate in the world to endure such torment.

I had to stake everything on the inevitable moment and do something about it.

I held onto that hope of saving Ellen as I watched the Ellen-but-not-Ellen leaving the tent without a word of farewell.

***

Ellen left the Royal Class encampment as soon as morning came.

In that state, Ellen was like a machine, but she didn’t harm or inconvenience anyone.

Most people didn’t even notice anything was different.

Ellen was naturally quiet and task-focused, so unless someone knew her well, they wouldn’t notice anything amiss.

I didn’t know if what I had to fight someday would be Ellen, or this other thing that had taken over her body.

The future I glimpsed showed me losing to Ellen, and Ellen committing suicide in front of my dead body.

I didn’t know if that Ellen I saw was truly Ellen, or the body of Ellen taken over by the collective mind of the vengeful spirits residing within her. I was doing image training to avoid defeat in that moment, but I kept losing.

If dying thousands or even tens of thousands of times in my dreams could help me gain victory just once in reality, that would be enough, but I would never know until that time came.

Regardless of who held the reins of Ellen’s body, I had to do what needed to be done.

Ellen’s condition wasn’t severe, but it was gradually worsening.

I headed back to Anna’s tent.

It was still empty.

I couldn’t tell from a cursory examination if she hadn’t returned at all, or if she had come back late and left early, but the inside of the tent looked exactly the same. That gave credence to the theory that Anna hadn’t returned at all.

Given the nature of magical research or experiments, staying up all night was common, and professional researchers often slept in their labs.

Just like the day before, the Royal Class students who saw me merely greeted me again. They had no idea that I was looking for Anna.

Though it was a bit odd to say, Ellen was the unusual one for talking to me the way she did. Most people, when they saw me, would either pet me without a word or talk among themselves while doing so.

There were inherent limitations to gathering information in the form of an animal. Namely, I couldn’t ask questions.

Since I was unable to ask questions, I could only gather information from the conversations between people. If I were in human form, I could just ask someone where Anna had gone, and the problem would be solved. But in cat form, if no one mentioned Anna in their conversations, I had no way of knowing where she was or what she was doing.

There was also another problem...

“When did this one come back again?”

“It’s grown a lot.”

Meow.

People passing by me would approach and talk about me (the cat) when they saw me, and never about what I was curious about.

I remained a black hole that sucked away all discussion of any other topics. Even though they no longer sat around all day trying to pet me, the few words they exchanged around me were always about me in cat form.

Even if I eavesdropped, waiting around forever for a topic about Anna to come up was disheartening.

‘Should I just call Connor Lint? He might know where Anna went.’

But then again, I didn’t want to reveal that the cat in the Royal Class encampment was actually Reinhart.

I knew it didn’t really matter if Connor Lint found out, but technically, I would be revealing something I shouldn’t.

I wanted to avoid being labeled as a strange pervert as much as possible.

Of course, I could just turn into a beautiful woman and run into Connor Lint outside the Royal Class encampment.

If I said something like, “You do realize the only kind of woman who’d approach you like this would either be Sarkegar or me, right?” he’d probably get it immediately.

However, Connor Lint was labeled as a non-combatant, and he was always useful to the army, whether there was a battle or not. Therefore, I couldn’t find him in the Royal Class encampment at all. He seemed to have been summoned away to assist someone else.

Since he could move anywhere instantly, Connor Lint was actually the hardest one to find, even if I really tried.

Also, it would be embarrassing if I made contact with him after specifically telling him not to look into things.

Seriously, though, was that guy trying to investigate things on his own? If so, he might really end up kicking a hornet’s nest.

While I was sure that Anna hadn’t returned to the encampment, that didn’t mean she was necessarily involved in the creation of an undead army.

Sarkegar was also gathering information on his own, so even if I came up empty-handed, he might turn up something.

For the moment, I was clearly limited in my options, and so I remained in the Royal Class encampment.

It was up to Sarkegar, who was surveying the entire Allied Forces’ encampment, to uncover anything new.

***

At the appointed time and place, and having reverted to human form, I met Sarkegar in a secluded area of the supply depot in the Allied Forces’ encampment.

“Your Highness, it’s difficult to gather information,” Sarkegar said.

“I see.”

Getting information about Titan hadn’t been easy, but this was even harder. Understandably so, since it involved the kind of research or experimentation that absolutely could not be revealed. The security surrounding such a project would be on an entirely different level—far beyond what we dealt with in the Titan case.

“Mages generally have a habit of not wanting to disclose their research to outsiders. Therefore, security is more stringent than anywhere else.”

“A habit?”

“Yes. It’s similar to how dogs bury bones.”

Sarkegar’s words were amusing, even in the situation we were in.

Mages are pathologically averse to revealing their research results to others. Therefore, they tend to be obsessively concerned with security.

Saying it was a habit meant they did it even for research that didn’t necessarily need to be secret.

“Moreover,” Sarkegar continued, “mages tend to encrypt their documents. This is true for joint research, and even more so for individual research.”

I sighed. “They live such complicated lives.”

“In any case, the garrisons holding representatives from the Magic Tower, the Mage Guild, the Imperial Mage Corps, and the Temple’s mages all have a large number of confidential documents, but there are very few documents whose contents I can read and understand.”

“So, these sets of confidential documents might have nothing to do with this matter?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Because of the security, it was difficult to even enter the place where the mages kept their documents, and even if someone managed to, they wouldn’t be able to tell if the document was what they were looking for since these mages habitually encrypted everything.

A spy might spend time deciphering a code only to find that the document was completely unrelated to what they were looking for.

The mages’ obsession with security and encryption were the obstacles in our way.

In the case of Titan, it was an extremely large-scale project that was simply too difficult to keep hidden. After all, each of Titan’s components was massive, and required a massive amount of manpower just for transportation.

“What about finding the location where the research or experiments are being conducted?”

“As I mentioned, access to each mage group’s garrison is generally much more strictly controlled, even compared to the Royal Class encampment.”

There were too many potential locations where the research might be going on, and most were hard to access, so it was impossible to know where to go.

The Allied Forces were a moving army, yet they still managed to set up areas within this massive encampment with such strict access control. That was just how strong the mages’ security obsession was. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

It would be difficult for Sarkegar to even make it into the Imperial Mage Corps’ encampment, and even if he were successful, securing conclusive evidence would be even harder.

Therefore, he hadn’t turned up anything substantial yet.

If we had more time, we might find a way. It hadn’t been that long since we began our investigation.

“Hmm... This situation might bear similarities with the Titan case...”

“If such a thing is indeed happening, it would require a massive area, which would be hard to hide,” Sarkegar commented.

This magical experiment involved thousands of corpses.

While they might not be producing something as physically massive as Titan, the scale of the experiment itself would have to be comparable to the Titan project.

An experiment where security was paramount, in an environment with too many eyes...

Where in the Allied Forces’ encampment could something like that even take place? There was no way to know.

If Anna were involved in this experiment, simply following her would lead to the research location. But she either stayed at the research site or didn’t return to the Royal Class encampment at all.

“We’ll just have to keep investigating. Continue your inquiries. Don’t do anything too dangerous. I’ll try something on my end as well.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” Sarkegar said with a quiet nod. He transformed into a black cat and vanished.

Was it really such a complicated issue?

It felt like I was missing something very simple.

It was a strange feeling.