Chapter 14 : The Hero, Not a Prince
Chapter 14: The Hero, Not a Prince
“Uh....”
Roger’s gaping mouth didn’t seem like it would close.
“You’re saying you’ll let me go...?”
“I never said such a thing.”
“Y-you clearly said you would show mercy....”
“I meant I would let you live.”
And now you were alive.
“....”
Not a single word was wrong.
Roger’s complexion turned pale.
“Ah....”
His short knees sank into the snow. Hot tears dripped onto the cold surface.
The Demon King had already known.
That Roger had planned to pretend to act as a spy just long enough to escape.
“You look happy enough to shed tears.”
“...Yes, of course.”
“Stand up. We have a long way to go.”
“...Yes.”
It was cold. The chill that pierced through the fur coat, famed for dwarven cold-resistance, made him instinctively mutter that it was indeed the Ergest Mountains.
“Um, where exactly are we going?”
“To the summit, of course.”
“You mean the tower is at the summit?”
He was a hero, but ever since making the princess’s weapon, Roger had lived a secluded life.
So he didn’t know that a new Demon King had descended.
Nor that this Demon King had kidnapped the Crown Princess of Hilderan.
But at the very least, he did know that the Demon King’s Tower was supposed to be built in a reasonably dangerous place—somewhere humans could still reach.
But the summit of the Ergest Mountains?
It felt strange, but Roger was not the sort of man bold enough to ask directly.
They climbed for a long while. His short dwarven legs couldn’t move quickly, but luckily, he had stamina built up from years of blacksmithing.
“M-monsters are avoiding us on their own.”
“Of course they are. I am the Demon King. Do you think mere monsters would dare block my path?”
“C-could it be that the entire mountain is yours...?”
Berje gave no answer. But silence was often as good as affirmation.
‘Could it really be...?’
A sense of foreboding flickered through his mind like fire, and Roger swallowed hard.
After a long climb, they reached the summit. The tower was hidden within a basin, hard to find.
“Take a good look. This is where you’ll be working for me from now on.”
“...Me, working on the tower? How....”
“You’ll learn in time.”
The tower door opened.
Roger squeezed his eyes shut.
They said there were relatively weak monsters on the first floor, but monsters were monsters. Since becoming a hero—no, since birth—Roger had never seen a living monster up close, and he was terrified.
“What are you doing?”
“Ah, well....”
At the Demon King’s scolding, he opened his eyes. And faced an empty cavern.
“Uh.... Is it supposed to be like this?”
“For now, yes. I’ll fill it up gradually.”
“Ah, I see. Right, you’re the newly arrived Demon King.”
Roger accepted it. In any case, it was a relief that he didn’t have to see monsters.
“Follow me.”
They went up to the 2nd and 3rd floors. The empty floors were no different from the 1st. And when they reached the 4th floor, he was shocked for an entirely different reason.
It was a scene far too unlike anything in a Demon King’s Tower.
“Spirits...?”
Spirits were darting around inside a tower where mana was supposed to be thin.
“Ah, you’re here?”
A human popped out from among them, startling Roger even more. No matter how he looked, she didn’t fit the Demon King’s Tower at all.
“And this is...?”
“Who?”
“This is the princess of Hilderan. And this is the dwarf you’ll be living with from now on. He’s a hero.”
“...Princess?”
“...Hero?”
“Live together on the 4th floor. You’ll be seeing each other often, so at least say hello.”
The Demon King went up to the 5th floor.
Left alone, the princess and the hero faced each other in silence.
“You’re not here to rescue me, are you?”
“...At the moment, no.”
“Were you kidnapped too, by any chance?”
“....”
“You’re not a princess... right?”
“....”
“...Are you at least a hero...?”
“...At the moment, yes.”
Roger hung his head low.
He had no pride as a hero, but for some reason, he felt so embarrassed he could die.
* * *
“You want me to remodel the first floor?”
Just when the discomfort of sharing a space with the princess had grown suffocating, the Demon King summoned Roger.
And the first command given was something he found hard to accept.
“Did you not say you would use your skills for me? Was that a lie?”
“N-no, it wasn’t.”
“Then I am giving you an opportunity. The honor of using your base-born skills for me.”
“So you mean I can do whatever I want with the first floor....”
“Don’t make me waste breath saying it twice.”
‘Ballistae and cannons in the Demon King’s Tower...?’
Replacing monsters with ballistae and cannons—he couldn’t imagine such a sight.
‘I thought he wanted me to make weapons or armor....’
The demon race also wielded weapons and wore armor. Naturally, when he’d been brought to the tower, he assumed that was his purpose.
But to fill the first floor with dwarven traps—he hadn’t expected that.
“If you want to say you can’t bring yourself to kill heroes anymore, that’s fine.”
“Really?”
“Of course.”
Roger was not nearly dull enough to miss the killing intent creeping in.
“N-no. In fact, I really want to do it.”
His own life was more important than other heroes he didn’t even know.
“Are you capable of it?”
“I am one of the finest craftsmen in the Dwarven Kingdom. If you wish, I can show you dwarven mastery beyond simple cannons or ballistae!”
“A good mindset. Do you need anything?”
“It depends on how much and in what way the first floor is to be remodeled.”
“The entire first floor. I will give the entire floor to you—make it however you like.”
“The entire first floor.... Then may I first draw up some plans?”
“I’ll give you two days.”
“Y-yes!”
“Oh, and by the way.”
The Demon King thrust his head forward. Roger collapsed as those pitch-black eyes loomed close.
A whisper slid through the space between them.
“If you want to try something, go ahead. But do not forget that this is the Demon King’s Tower. The moment you forget that will become the worst moment you can imagine.”
“Hic.”
The Demon King vanished. And the dampened pants remained with Roger.
“Sniff.”
It was miserable.
* * *
“I accepted the dwarf.”
In truth, he hadn’t fully accepted even that. But compared to the current situation, it had been a hundred—no, a thousand times better.
“But a hero?”
Heroes were enemies.
Protectors of their dimension against invasion.
And obstacles that must be eliminated for dimensional conquest.
Due to the unique nature of the dimension called Arein, relations between humans and the Demon King had recently been inconsistent, but it didn’t change the fact that they were fundamentally irreconcilable foes.
“No Demon King has ever brought a hero into their tower!”
“Then I suppose I’ll be the first.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“I told you I was bringing a dwarf. Do you need me to explain the plan again?”
“But that one is a hero.”
“And a dwarf. And one of the finest craftsmen of his kingdom.”
“No matter what, still...!”
“Then will you make it?”
“....”
Berje silenced Gordon’s complaint and savored his bitter tea.
“Worry about how to gather the materials the dwarf will demand.”
“...It’s simple. You’ll just have to go fetch them yourself.”
Gordon replied curtly.
“Explain.”
“Purchasing the needed materials separately from multiple kingdoms will prevent the worst-case scenario.”
“And your worst-case is?”
“That you get discovered purchasing materials, get tracked, and your intentions are exposed.”
“And the countermeasure?”
“If the flow is dispersed across multiple kingdoms, no one will know it’s all for you. Human logistics has patterns—but you’ll be using subspace, so they won’t be able to track anything.”
“Not bad. Then why that face?”
“What’s wrong with my face?”
Wrong? Many things.
It was an irritating face—one he felt like crushing on the spot.
Before the regression, he hadn’t been like this. What had changed?
“There might soon be a problem.”
“....”
Gordon beamed at the Demon King’s raised fist. That expression was unpleasant in its own way.
Berje tapped the table lightly.
‘It’ll be a bit troublesome, but this is better.’
A dwarven trap’s lifeline was secrecy.
A completely unpredictable moment.
A completely unpredictable trap.
Even aside from that, it wasn’t ideal to have humans noticing he was doing something and tracking him.
“Good. Do that. Bring me a plan detailing which materials should be acquired from where.”
“I don’t even know what’s needed.”
“Is that supposed to be a question? Obviously, it means you should ask that hero brat.”
“Ah.”
“Do you not want to work?”
“...No.”
“Then are you rebelling?”
“....”
“They say you were top of the Training School—how laughable.”
“That’s not it.”
“Enough. Once the blueprint is ready, I’ll look into it myself, so just monitor the situation in Iasince.”
“...Yes.”
Berje vanished. Left alone, Gordon slammed his fist into the wall.
* * *
Gordon stormed back into the adjutant’s quarters and dropped heavily onto his bed.
No matter how he thought about it, he was furious.
The earlier incident had indeed been his fault. He’d been so fixated on the dwarf being a hero that he hadn’t been able to think straight.
But if he traced the cause back from the start, it all led to Berje.
“I endured the tower being built on the Ergest Mountains.”
“I endured the tower being hidden.”
“I endured the princess being set loose on the 4th floor instead of locked in a cell, and even decorating it however she wanted.”
“I endured wasting precious demonic points to buy money.”
“I endured using an elf for backdoor dealings.”
“I even tolerated letting a dwarf fill the first floor.”
Even when the Demon King broke all standards and acted unlike any demon should, he let it slide. Because the man was the Demon King. The lord he was sworn to serve.
But now he had kidnapped a hero.
And he planned to put that hero in charge of the tower’s entrance.
“Damn it.”
This was not the ideal he had dreamed of for a Demon King and his adjutant.
This wasn’t why he spent ten years studying at the Demon Race Training School.
This wasn’t why he became its top graduate.
“I can’t take this anymore...!”
Gordon loosened his clenched fist. A heavy sigh left him.
But he still had to endure.
The relationship between a Demon King and an adjutant was vertical. And no race valued hierarchy more strictly than the demons.
Disobeying orders meant death. That was an unquestioned punishment. And by Demon Realm law, it was enforced even more severely in the tower than in the Realm itself.
“Damn it, if only he weren’t the Demon King!”
But Berje was the Demon King, and Gordon was the adjutant.
He took out a crystal sphere. Once he infused it with demonic energy, it shimmered softly and caught a signal.
『You’re back again.』
『So the Demon King has arrived. Earlier than expected, huh?』
“Are all Demon Kings like this?”
Gordon vented the resentment he had been swallowing.
『I hear anger in your voice.』
『I get it. They’re the ones we must serve, but Demon Kings can sometimes really piss us off.』
『I’d like to hear what happened.』
“He doesn’t listen to a word I say. Everything is unilateral. Why even have me as an adjutant if he’s going to act like this?”
『So you too? Mine is the same. He listens sometimes, but most of the time he just does whatever he wants.』
『Too bad. My Demon King listens to me very well.』
『Aina, please shut up.』
『You shut up, Cocoon. How disgraceful.』
The voices that seemed to be listening to him quickly devolved into bickering among themselves.
“If he would listen to even one thing, I wouldn’t feel this disillusioned.”
『They say you were the most outstanding graduate in the history of the Demon King Military Academy. I suppose you’re living up to the name.』
『Speaking of which, Gordon—weren’t you also the top of the Demon Race Training School? No wonder it feels strange; it’s the first time a top graduate has come to Arein.』
『Mine’s the same. I can’t tell if I’m an adjutant or just some demon who echoes whatever he says.』
“That’s exactly what I mean! If he weren’t the Demon King, honestly!”
『Don’t say that in front of him.』
『He seems short-tempered. Your head will fly off immediately.』
『You’d be Gor/done. That’d be something to see, honestly.』
“Please don’t say something so horrible.”
Arein had a communication network for adjutants who served the Demon Kings.
And most of the times the channel opened were on days when someone’s temper had finally exploded because of their superior.
* * *
Although adjutants’ personal communications were protected, it wasn’t unusual for those with exceptional loyalty to run to their superiors and report what they heard.
“I thought as much.”
Draxon chuckled as he tore into raw meat.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen such an arrogant brat lift his chin at me like that. And despite being treated like a fool during the graduation ceremony for insulting the *Standard*, he used to be praised as the top graduate before that. There’s no way he isn’t conceited.”
Even if he hadn’t been the top graduate, there wasn’t a single Demon King who didn’t hold his head high.
That was the nature of demons—of Demon Kings.
“What do you think?”
“Are you referring to the Demon King, or the adjutant?”
“The adjutant. There’s always a chance the brat could be lying, no?”
“He didn’t seem to be.”
The resentment heard through the crystal sphere had been genuine.
“So the Demon King who brought neither demons nor summoned monsters also has a bad relationship with his adjutant.”
Draxon’s smile grew curious. The first meeting had been so fierce he’d assumed the guy had something special—but maybe it was all bluff.
‘No, there must be something.’
“What’s that slave elf doing now?”
The fact that the guy used demonic energy to buy mere human money, then used that money to purchase a slave—suspicious from the start. Draxon did not relax his guard.
Though the scheme had been exposed and one subordinate had been destroyed, it was still ongoing.
“He is moving south with the Red Hawk Mercenary Company.”
“Destination?”
“That much is still... unknown.”
“And the adjutant brat? Didn’t he say anything?”
“He seemed to have many complaints, but he did not tell us what Demon King Berje is actually doing.”
“So the brat has some loyalty?”
It wasn’t loyalty—nothing of the sort. He simply couldn’t bring himself to tell other adjutants that his Demon King had given an entire floor to a princess and dragged a hero into the tower.
“Keep talking to him and pry gently. Report anything unusual immediately.”
“Yes.”
“And don’t take your eyes off that elf brat.”
“I’ll remember.”
“And the hero?”
“Hero Hillan Cargill has left Hilderan and is passing through the Kingdom of Endine. His number has grown to forty heroes, and including the mercenaries and merchants joining them, the total is 141.”
“Faster than expected. I’m almost curious how many more will gather by the time they reach the Ergest Mountains. Especially considering who their opponent is.”
The hero’s desperate attempt to increase his odds of survival had backfired in the worst way.
The area was far too dangerous for ordinary rabble to approach, so the kingdom had commissioned the strongest hero to lead the march.
The core issue, of course, was kidnapping the Crown Princess of Hilderan. Likely born from that characteristic arrogance of his.
“Hillan Cargill.”
A real hero who had cut down the Lust Demon King.
“After killing Tyrus and absorbing his fame and power, who knows how much stronger he’s become now.”
“Perhaps Demon King Berje’s first encounter with a hero might indeed be his last.”
“He rampaged like thunder with nothing on, and now look at him. Serves him right. Still... I don’t like it, so let’s stir things a bit more.”
“How...?”
“Heroes love strategies. They love gathering information and figuring out how to dismantle their opponent step by step.”
Draxon snapped his fingers.
“He handled fire, didn’t he?”
“Yes, they say he uses black flames.”
“Send that information discreetly toward the heroes. Make sure they don’t see any connection to us.”
“Yes.”
From the human perspective, they knew nothing about what kind of Demon King Berje was. They didn’t know what to prepare for or what tactics to devise.
Even just learning he wielded flame would completely alter the battle.
Into a much more certain defeat for Berje.
Krrrk, hrk hrk.
Draxon curled his lips into a lewd, evil smile.