Demon King of the Royal Class

Chapter 330

Had Adriana gotten close enough to Loyar to bathe her already? It did seem like Loyar had taken a liking to Adriana.

“That’s good to see. You should keep it up. I could hardly stand the smell of a wet dog in midsummer,” Eleris said, smiling brightly.

“Mind your own business,” Loyar snapped, glaring at her. “It’s my business whether I bathe or not.”

“Make sure to buy some insecticide on your way back and spray it on her. I’m sure the fleas and lice that lived on you have jumped over onto her as well.”

“Are you serious? I don’t have fleas or lice!”

“It would be strange if you didn’t have any while living like that. Or perhaps you were too dirty for even fleas and lice to survive on you.”

“Shut up!”

Eleris had a tendency to tease Loyar, and Loyar’s reactions were quite entertaining. It was similar to how I would poke fun at Harriet.

Anyway, the white-haired beast who had transformed from a wet dog into a human, Loyar, had joined us.

“Alright. The previous situation was an urgent one, and so I did not have time to explain everything properly. I called you all here today to clarify a few things,” I started.

Back then, the most important thing had been to get things done, and I hadn’t had time to explain things. I had returned to the Temple immediately after that, and did not have a chance to speak with them.

The one whom I needed to understand the situation the most was Sarkegar. It didn’t matter too much if Eleris or Loyar didn’t get it.

“In the previous encounter, I was trying to save Olivia, and Adriana as well..”

All three of them remained silent.

“Olivia is co-master of Tiamata, and plays a crucial role in imbuing Tiamata with Divine Power. I cannot afford for her to disappear. Of course, I won’t say that I’m only keeping her around because she’s useful. Adriana and Olivia are both important to me.”

“Your Highness... you have too much affection for huma—Never mind.”

Sarkegar started to say something, then cut himself off, looking concerned. He seemed to realize he couldn’t persuade me to see things his way when it came to this issue and gave up.

“Sarkegar, I’m sure you must be wondering, above all else, why we let the humans know of our existence. Correct?” I asked.

“Yes, Your Highness. If the humans learn that a new Demon King exists, they will unite and try to hunt us down.”

Revealing the fact that remnants of the demon forces remained would temporarily halt the forces that were driving the empire towards division, which was beneficial for the empire, but it was surely a disaster to Sarkegar, who dreamed of rebuilding the Demon Realm. However, I could always find a reason to fit the situation.

“Sarkegar, would you like to hear something interesting?”

“Yes, what is it?”

“Leverier Lanche, just before he died, suggested that we join forces.”

Both Eleris and Sarkegar’s seemed shocked by this revelation.

“He argued that, if his faction sowed chaos within the empire, it would benefit us. He thought it would be better for us to join forces.”

“The leader of the Holy Knights... said such a thing...?”

“Humans are like that,” I said, lowering my voice. “They are willing to ally with non-humans and kill other humans for their own benefit.”

I was highlighting the wickedness and selfishness of humans.

“In that case... wouldn’t it have been better to join forces from the start...?”

“I told you. Leverier Lanche was after two things that I wasn’t willing to give up. That’s why it was impossible to negotiate with him.”

I had no intention of hiding that Adriana and Olivia were important to me.

“We are still weak. Even if the humans turned on each other now, the empire might be able to bring it under control somehow, and everything might be settled before we can strike,” I added.

“...”

“Now is not the right time. When we have a solid foundation and are fully prepared, we can then trigger everything at once. A republican revolution, or the establishment of a Holy Empire.”

As I spoke, Sarkegar’s expression began to change. From his initial doubt and confusion, he started to find answers.

“The idea of a Holy Empire won’t disappear just because Leverier Lanche is dead. There are already factions within the Church of the Five Great Gods that desire independence. They might find another focal point besides Leverier Lanche. And those factions, if necessary, will ally with us.

“The Revolutionary Forces? They’re no different. The empire is a colossal monster, one that the Revolutionary Forces have to face. Those guys? If they think these new demon forces can shake the empire, they’ll definitely want to ally with us.

“Of course, if they believed we were the forces of the previous Demon King, they wouldn’t ally with us. They’d just try to use us.

“In other words, an alliance makes sense at this point because both of these factions are weak. Such an alliance is necessary to face the monster that is the empire. Therefore, we did not reveal ourselves just to unite humanity against us. We did it to inform these anti-imperial factions of our existence.

“We’ll approach them one by one and find common ground. We could discuss the timing and specifics of tearing the empire apart.

“So, whether it’s a revolution, the establishment of a Holy Empire, or the rebuilding of the Demon Realm, it would be better if they all happened simultaneously, rather than sequentially. It’s a proposal they can’t refuse.

“In short, this is the starting point for creating an anti-imperial alliance.”

My initial purpose was to let humanity know that forces of the Demon Realm still existed, thereby preventing them from turning on each other.

However, depending on how you phrase it, you could also say that we revealed our existence to ally with anti-empire forces and use them to our advantage.

An anti-empire alliance... In the end, it was all down to how one framed the situation.

Eleris was staring at me with a stunned expression.

Even Eleris, who knew my true intentions, was shocked. Perhaps she was wondering if this was indeed my true goal, rather than the future-oriented plans I had shared with her. Despite having confided everything in her, this line of thinking still surprised her.

“Your Highness’s insight is... truly remarkable...!”

Sarkegar was, of course, completely convinced, and his doubts were resolved.

They had to be.

It was a real possibility and I could indeed orchestrate things in such a fashion if I’d wanted to. If the Revolutionary Forces believed that toppling the empire was their priority, they would willingly ally with us and rely on the weakened remnants of the demon forces.

After the empire fell, they would likely try to turn on us. However, such alliances with possible future enemies were always made out of need.

First, you topple the biggest immediate threat, then you deal with the smaller threats you allied with.

I could steer things in such a direction if I chose to.

“Contact with the Revolutionary Forces will be made under the guise of remnants of the Dark Land, Sarkegar.”

“Understood, Your Highness...”

Sarkegar seemed to be in awe, as if he couldn’t believe how grand my plan was.

But it was all a lie.

The Revolutionary Forces and the Holy Empire...

I could contact their core leadership and exchange information, but all I needed to say to keep them from acting was that it wasn’t the right time yet.

I just needed to buy time until the Gate Incident occurred, which would be in about a year.

As long as I could keep them occupied until then, my goal would be achieved. The rest could be dealt with later.

Just thinking about how to deal with the Gate Incident was enough to make my head spin. I wasn’t about to make things worse by contemplating the possible consequences of my actions right now.

After all, there was no point thinking about doing the dishes before the main course was even served.

I had merely laid out my intentions in a rough way. The most important thing was for Sarkegar to be convinced, and he seemed to be. Even Eleris seemed a little dazed.

Sarkegar said that he would find a way to contact the Revolutionary Forces as soon as possible, and left eagerly.

Despite his appearance, he was thorough in his work, so I wasn’t worried.

Loyar, having listened to everything, just sat there blankly. It seemed like her mind was elsewhere.

“Do you have anything to say?” I asked her.

“... Well, if that’s what Your Highness says, then that’s how it is.”

Anyway, the discussion was over.

“How’s Adriana? Is she doing well? From what I hear, she’s doing better than I expected, considering she’s even bathing you.”

It wasn’t like Loyar was the one bathing a much younger child; she was the one being bathed, which was already a problem.

“Compared to that brat, she’s an angel. She’s quiet, kind, and always wants to help, which is annoying.”

Despite her words, Loyar was smiling while talking about Adriana.

‘She got utterly neutralized by being called “unnie”. Isn’t that too easy? Well... Dogs are like that, after all...‘

If I thought about it, Ellen’s personality was more like that of a cat—never easily showing her emotions, acting like she doesn’t care, but then suddenly coming over and sitting on your lap.

It made me wonder if Ellen and Loyar were just inherently incompatible.

I had originally thought about sending Adriana somewhere else, but seeing how Loyar was acting after just a few days, it seemed like Adriana was doing well.

Of course, this was just Loyar’s perspective, and Adriana might have been feeling differently. I decided I should visit her myself later.

After Loyar left the sewer with a noticeably lighter step, I turned to Eleris for the last time.

“How about Radia? How’s she doing?”

“Hmm, she’s very scared of me. I suppose it’s inevitable. But if you leave her to me... I believe there will be good results soon.”

I had originally intended for Radia Schmidt to die, but she was spared at Eleris’s request. I trusted Eleris to handle her.

***

It was Tuesday, and the chaos from the recent events seemed to have calmed down somewhat. Most of the people who needed to leave had done so in a controlled manner, and while the investigation was ongoing, it was likely going nowhere. They wouldn’t find any traces of us, or be able to track down anything.

At the moment, I was in the head student council president’s office with seven other people.

The head student council president and vice president were there, both of whom I had seen before while sorting out the club budget issue.

The Temple’s head student council president, fifth-year Raine Carly, and vice president, fourth-year Hermann von Rogarius...

The festival had ended, which should have come as a relief to them both, but they still looked visibly exhausted.

“You will now be granted an audience with His Majesty the emperor.”

The winners of the Temple’s festival tournaments were given an opportunity to have an audience with the emperor. I had thought that it might be canceled due to the recent incident, but it seemed they had no intention of calling it off.

The ones selected for this audience were the six winners from the first-year to sixth-year tournaments, and the winner of the Open Tournament.

This time, unusually, even Mister Temple and Miss Temple were included in this group.

Therefore, it wasn’t just me standing in the head student council president’s office and listening to the instructions for and precautions to take when meeting the emperor, but Ellen as well.

I didn’t know who Mister Temple was. He was just an annoyingly handsome guy from one of the general classes, and apparently a fourth-year student.

I didn’t care.

It was clear that something was bothering Raine Carly even as she was explaining various precautions to us, and I knew what it was without her saying it.

There should have been nine of us in that office—seven tournament winners, Miss Temple, and Mister Temple.

However, there were only eight of us.

The winner of the Open Tournament, Radia Schmidt, was missing.

Leonard, the winner of the sixth-year tournament and a Royal Class A-5 student, also seemed puzzled by Radia Schmidt’s absence. He was a senior I was unfamiliar with since he hadn’t participated in the Open Tournament.

Radia Schmidt’s disappearance was a significant issue.

The imperial family might suspect that Radia Schmidt, being associated with the Nameless Monastery, had been caught up in the recent incident and was presumed dead.

However, a disappearance was still a disappearance.

Those who knew about the Nameless Monastery would understand that the search for Radia Schmidt would be tied to this incident.

Things could get complicated If there were witnesses who remembered seeing me and Radia Schmidt together in the Aligar shopping district.

In the end, I had taken a risk to save Adriana and Olivia.

If this became an issue, I could always release Radia Schmidt from captivity and have her offer a false testimony.

Eleris’s decision to spare Radia Schmidt might turn out to be beneficial for me.

Our party, one person short, departed the Temple to meet the emperor, escorted by members of the Imperial Guard.

Originally, the honor of meeting the emperor was reserved for the tournament winners only.

The reason for the unusual inclusion of Miss Temple and Mister Temple this year was obvious. I looked over at Ellen.

“... I’m hungry,” Ellen muttered with a blank expression.

She was the younger sister of Ragan Artorius and a classmate of Vertus and Charlotte.

The court would be curious about what kind of person Ellen was.

Not only that, but the emperor knew that Charlotte’s condition had improved because of me.

Sabioleen Tana had mentioned that the emperor would summon me someday, but I didn’t expect that I would eventually go to meet him as a tournament winner, and accompanied by Ellen, no less.

The journey to the Imperial City of Emperatos was different this time, probably because we were being accompanied by the Imperial Guard.

Instead of taking the magic train, we used the warp gate outside the Temple exit to travel directly to the gate near the imperial palace entrance.

Arrangements had been made beforehand, so we had bypassed the queue and passed through for free, and were now directly in front of the Imperial Palace, Emperatos.

Ellen, wearing her usual blank expression, seemed indifferent to the whole situation. It was as if she was thinking, ‘Well, if the emperor wants to see us, then so be it.’

Honestly, I felt a bit nervous, but observing Ellen’s nonchalant demeanor was quite amusing.

‘Wait... When I think about it, shouldn’t I be the one person in the whole world who is most afraid of meeting the emperor? The fact that I only feel a little bit nervous might mean that I’m even more nonchalant than Ellen.’

With these trivial thoughts bouncing about in my mind, we followed our escort into the imperial palace.

Just like on my last visit, we boarded a prepared tram and headed towards the central palace, Tetra.

For most of the students, it was their first time riding the tram inside the imperial palace, and they were all amazed.

Even Ellen seemed a little fascinated. “I didn’t know they had a tram here.”

“Well, it’s big, so it makes sense,” I responded.

I, on the other hand, wasn’t particularly impressed. Without such a mode of transportation, moving around inside the vast grounds of the palace compound would be truly inconvenient.

“Have you been here before?”

Ellen’s question almost made me choke.

“No...?”

Even though it wouldn’t have mattered if I’d told her, there were still imperial guardsmen and other unfamiliar students around.

It was important no one knew that I had been to the Imperial Palace, Emperatos, nor that I had anything to do with events that had happened in the Spring Palace. Vertus could not find out that I played a significant role in saving Charlotte’s life.

Ellen simply nodded and looked out the window.

In the distance, I could see the Spring Palace and the Winter Palace. I wondered if Charlotte and Vertus were in their respective palaces.

The tram stopped at the central palace, Tetra, and we all disembarked and lined up in formation.

The main gate of the central palace was wide open. Everyone seemed to be overwhelmed by the solemn, majestic appearance of the central imperial palace, Tetra. Even though I had seen it before, the simplicity of the palace only added to its grandeur and dignity.

We walked through the central hall of the palace and entered the audience chamber. Nobles and officials were lined up to either side, and at the deepest part of the audience chamber, on a throne at the top of five steps, sat someone.

A middle-aged man with a golden crown, a scepter, and a red cloak...

The emperor of the empire, Neliod de Gradias.