Demon King of the Royal Class
Chapter 509

Chapter 509

Reinhart, having freed himself from the vengeful spirits that had been slowly killing him, regained his strength as if he had never been weakened.

Everything returned to its peak state. However, a silence hung over the upper ranks of Edina’s leadership.

Very few knew what had transpired. Riana de Granz had deceived the Demon King on her own, but then, all his closest aides had conspired together to deceive him.

Even though it had been necessary to save the Demon King, they had not consulted him. Thus, while everyone had acted to save him, they could only hold their breath and watch his reaction, fearing his inevitable anger.

He had been deceived once again, and this time, all his closest aides had collaborated.

No one knew how the Demon King might express his anger, and everyone was afraid. Harriet, Olivia, Airi, Charlotte, and even the entire Senate were fearful of what Reinhart might say.

But the Demon King said nothing. There was no anger. No sadness. No hatred. No resentment. He said nothing at all.

The Demon King sat atop the highest spire in Edina all day, saying nothing.

No one knew what he was thinking or feeling.

His silence only made everyone more fearful. He said nothing, and so no one knew what was going on in his heart and mind.

Everyone watched him with bated breath.

***

The castle of Edina was built on a cliff, and the Demon King often spent time in its highest spire.

It offered a view of all of Edina.

“Reinhart...”

“Yes?”

“Here... Eat this. You haven’t eaten anything all day, have you?”

Reinhart looked at the sandwich Harriet had brought.

“Thank you.”

The Demon King took the sandwich and took a bite.

He wasn’t starving himself. He wasn’t ignoring the others. He wasn’t blaming anyone. He was just sitting at the top of the spire, looking down at Edina, lost in thought.

He didn’t ignore anyone who spoke to him. After all, Charlotte was handling all the affairs of the state, so there was nothing Reinhart needed to do in Edina. Even if he spent all day like this, Edina would still run smoothly.

Harriet felt restless, unable to sit still beside Reinhart or leave. Reinhart hadn’t blamed or criticized anyone after learning what had happened. All he did was just sit there all day. All his subordinates were wrapped up in a sense of fear and guilt, unsure what his actions meant.

After a long silence, Reinhart finally spoke.

“Hey, Thick-Skull,” he said, looking up at Harriet.

“... Huh?”

Harriet felt a sudden fear. Was he finally going to say something? What anger would he display, what reproach would he give? What price would they have to pay for deceiving him?

Harriet felt her heart tighten with fear, wanting to hear Reinhart’s words but also dreading them.

“You know, I tried it, and I have to admit, it was nice. That dream manipulation thing.”

“Huh....? Oh, uh, yeah.”

Reinhart had brought up a completely different topic.

“Airi’s ability to control dreams... Do you think it could be replicated with magic?”

“Huh? Why do you ask...?”

“Well, I felt like I was losing my mind, but having Airi watch over me while I slept helped.”

What he was saying was completely unexpected.

“If we could create an artifact that emits a dream-like aura, wouldn’t it be possible for everyone in a certain area to have good dreams?”

“Uh... yeah, I guess.”

Harriet knew Reinhart could talk about such things, but it didn’t seem like the right time for it. Yet he didn’t mention the other matter at all, and was talking about something seemingly trivial instead.

The Demon King acted as if he had forgotten about the Ellen Artorius incident. Of course, venting and getting angry over something that had already happened was pointless, but it wasn’t as if Ellen was utterly insignificant to him.

Yet here he was, suddenly talking about artifacts related to dreams.

Harriet couldn’t understand what Reinhart was thinking.

“If we could gradually plant such artifacts throughout Edina, it might help treat people’s trauma.”

“Uh, y-yeah... I guess it would.”

“I’m not saying you have to make it, just think about it if you can,” Reinhart said as he munched on his sandwich.

Everyone had gone along with the plan despite knowing Reinhart would be very angry. However, they were realizing that the scariest reprimand was not receiving a reprimand at all.

Without him saying anything, they couldn’t know what he was thinking, and without any outward display of anger, they couldn’t gauge how angry he was.

In that tense atmosphere, someone had to step forward.

***

A week after the incident...

“Your Highness.”

Eleris had climbed up to the spire where Reinhart was spending his time.

“Oh, you’re here?” Reinhart gave a slight nod and turned his gaze back to the cityscape of Rajak.

Eleris quietly observed Reinhart. There was no anger, sadness, or relief in his expression.

Eleris didn’t know how to start speaking to the silent Demon King.

“Your Highness, about the recent incident...”

“Oh, that.” Reinhart looked at Eleris. “What about it?”

Eleris was frozen by his indifferent reaction. She couldn’t tell if he was calm, detached, or suppressing his emotions. Eleris didn’t know what to say, but she had to find the words.

“Are you... really okay?”

It felt terrible to ask someone who couldn’t possibly be okay if they were, but Eleris had to say something.

If he was suppressing his emotions, they might explode someday, and Eleris didn’t know what to do if that happened.

“Hmm...”

The Demon King quietly looked down at the cityscape of Rajak. “You once said something to me.”

“Something...? What are you saying, Your Highness?”

“You once said you hoped that our relationship wouldn’t turn out to be a sad one. The relationship between me and Ellen.”

“Ah...” Eleris recalled the time the Demon King was referring to.

In the Dark Land, Eleris had traveled with Ellen and Reinhart under an alias. After learning that Ellen was Ragan Artorius’s sister, Eleris had said those words, as if foreseeing a tragic fate.

The son of the Demon King and the sister of the Hero... She had sensed that their relationship could never end well.

Now, time had passed, and the son of the Demon King had risen up to become the Demon King, and the sister of the Hero had taken on the mantle of Hero.

It had already become a sad, cruel relationship.

“It seems it was meant to be this way.”

“Sorry...?”

Reinhart continued to look down at the city of Rajak as he spoke. “Regardless of the reason, the cause, or who intended it, it seems it was meant to be this way.”

Eleris couldn’t understand the Demon King’s words.

“No matter how much I struggle, no matter how much I don’t want to face such a situation, it seems it was meant to be this way,” he said.

The Hero, who feared fighting the Demon King, had taken on humanity’s hatred, and would inevitably be driven to fight him.

“So blaming anyone for it is pointless. That’s all I’m thinking about.”

In a world where outcomes are predetermined, there is no freedom.

The Demon King truly wasn’t blaming anyone.

Eleris couldn’t understand what the Demon King was saying. His logic was something only he could comprehend.

The Demon King hadn’t been looking down at the city of Rajak at all.

[Preview has been activated.]

He had been replaying the scene shown to him by the system, over and over.

He was watching how he himself would be killed by Ellen, and the way Ellen stared blankly down at his fallen form.

Ellen stood there, with empty eyes, looking down at Reinhart.

Finally, grasping the Void Sword with both hands, she plunged it into her own chest. And there, kneeling before the fallen Demon King, she slowly died.

Reinhart had been watching this scene repeatedly, over and over.

“Anyway, I’m not particularly angry, so tell everyone not to worry,” Reinhart said, offering a faint smile to the dazed Eleris.

***

The future shown to me by the Previewfunction felt like the last shard of malice I had to face.

Ellen would kill me, and then take her own life. I didn’t know when that moment would be or how it would come to pass, but if things continued as they were, I would fight Ellen one day and be killed by her hand, after which Ellen would take her own life.

That was the last future shown to me. I did not know what lay beyond that.

Whether Edina would be destroyed, humanity would be destroyed, or both would be left to thrive, I did not know.

I also did not know whether it would happen after the Gate Incident concluded or before.

Ultimately, the path I had to take was already fixed in some way.

I couldn’t forcefully transfer the spirits that had entered Ellen back into my own body, as Ellen would not be so cooperative this time. Even if I could somehow do that, the situation would become so tangled that a future where I would have to fight Ellen in a different way would still arise.

Therefore, I accepted the future that was destined for us.

‘I must fight Ellen. If I can’t kill her, I will die, and if I die, Ellen will die too.’

I didn’t know if the Ellen I saw had already been possessed by the spirits and lost her identity. I didn’t know if the Ellen I saw was in control of her own body, or if it was the spirits that were controlling her. In any case, no matter how I try to avoid it, the future would still find me.

In truth, I wasn’t really angry. I had been exposed to so much malice that, rather than feeling anger, I felt a sense of resignation. ‘Ah, so this is how it ends.’

Could I change this future? The preview wasn’t shown to make me despair. It was shown to me so that I would have a chance to change it.

Of course, given how things stood at the moment, all I could see in it was my own despair.

Changing the future I saw would not be difficult. If either I died or Ellen died, it would erase that future.

It wasn’t an absolute future, and it was a future that could be easily changed. But I wouldn’t choose to pursue such easy methods, and so that future was bound to materialize.

However, if such a future was truly unavoidable and just meant to mock me, the damn candy vendor shouldn’t have shown it to me. The fact that it had been shown to me meant that such a situation would arise someday, and the candy vendor was telling me to struggle once more.

A future did not automatically materialize once it was shown to me, just as some of the futures that I had seen in other Previews did not happen in reality.

In this case, it was simple. If I was weak, both Ellen and I would die. Therefore, I just need to be stronger than Ellen. It was showing me that simple fact.

Everyone had to be wondering why I wasn’t angry and why I wasn’t blaming anyone. But only I could understand the reason I was acting this way, so I couldn’t explain this feeling to anyone.

“Did you call for me, Great Being?”

Sitting there in the spire above the Rajak royal castle, I heard the voice of Antirianus, who had responded to my summons.

I heard that Antirianus was the one who had suggested that Ellen take on the spirits I had been carrying.

It was this crazy old man who always offered ideas that seemed to be for my sake, but weren’t actually for me at all.

“Are you angry with me?” Antirianus asked.

“Even if I was, that’s not really meaningful,” I said without looking at Antirianus.

“I was sure you would try to kill me,” he said.

“What good would that do?”

It wasn’t that I wasn’t angry at all. In fact, I was fuming inside.

But what good would my anger serve? What good would killing Antirianus do?

I had tried to prevent the Gate Incident, and yet it had happened. That was what the world was like. My desires wouldn’t be so easily achieved.

Knowing it wasn’t possible to easily achieve them was actually better, since it meant there was at least a slight possibility of it happening.

Perhaps it was possible to get Ellen back. No matter how slim the chance, no matter how close to impossible it seemed, I didn’t think all possibilities were closed. Therefore, I would do what I could.

“I’m going to make you an offer you can’t refuse.”

“Haha...” Antirianus chuckled, sounding amused. “That’s quite intriguing.”

Antirianus listened.