Chapter 122 : The Empire’s Objective
Chapter 122: The Empire’s Objective
Demon King of Dark Flame.
That name alone was more than enough to draw the attention of the imperial family members.
“...The Demon King of Dark Flame?”
“What did the Demon King of Dark Flame say to you?”
“He told me to kill all of you! To kill you and throw the Empire into chaos...!”
Betrayed, Vairif had nothing left to hold back. With all the strength he had, he confessed everything. Or tried to.
Cough-
“...Huh?”
Vairif touched the pitch-black blood that flowed along the corner of his mouth.
“What is th...?”
That was his last word. His head exploded. A headless corpse collapsed onto the ground.
No traces were left behind. It was merely the price of betrayal being exacted in accordance with the contract engraved upon his soul.
If there was anything at all, it was only that the demonic energy said to be inside Vairif had gone berserk.
Because of that, no one noticed.
“There’s a demon nearby! Find him!”
“How dare some bastard do this!”
But humans only saw what they wanted to see. The imperial family members, convinced that someone had assassinated Vairif, flew into a rage.
Daphne Phillian, Balraf Dislode, Rozel Charnte, Aina Diaphrin, along with Stars and heroes, and knights, mages, and soldiers scattered in all directions.
All conflict from moments ago was forgotten for a single purpose: finding the imaginary demon race that had killed Vairif.
“How dare some bastard...!”
The imperial family members raged, and Berje became one of the enraged as well, climbing up onto the crater. Together with Hero Hillan Cargill, he pretended to search the surroundings.
“Did Lord Pale do it?”
“Yes.”
“There wasn’t even any sign of demonic energy. How?”
“It had nothing to do with demonic energy. It acted upon his soul as the price for breaking the contract.”
There was only one reason he bothered to explain.
“Do not forget that what’s inside your head is far more binding than a contract with a Black Mage.”
“....”
It was a warning.
Even though Berje himself had already decided to discard him first.
And even though he understood the psychology of Vairif, who had been driven to the worst possible situation.
Understanding and acceptance were two different things.
That a mere subordinate, a mere Black Mage, dared to betray him was something that could never be tolerated.
He could discard his subordinates if he wished, but a subordinate must never dare to betray him.
That was a Demon King, and that was Berje.
“...I know.”
Hillan averted his gaze and changed the subject.
“But what will you do now? This is no longer a matter of whether or not to use the Third Prince to wear down the Empire’s strength, is it?”
“...Vairif, that damned bastard.”
Hillan was right.
Through Vairif’s mouth, Berje’s existence had been revealed.
Before four imperial family members, before the successors of the Empire.
Even though he had been so careful.
Even though he had hidden it so thoroughly.
“You must calm yourself.”
“I am calm right now.”
The fact that he was not revealing his demonic energy alone meant he was exercising truly superhuman patience.
He was utterly confused.
It was the first time he had experienced a Black Mage betraying a Demon King.
The bastard had paid the price for his betrayal, but the aftermath had begun to tighten around Berje’s neck.
“How do you think the Empire will move?”
“They will be desperate to find the tower.”
“As expected, I suppose?”
“I cannot say exactly what Vairif did, but there was an explosion powerful enough to shake the gorge, and the First Prince’s camp was filled with the wounded and reduced in numbers. If those were the elites of the Osrian Ducal House, and if you consider the First Prince’s pride....”
The Empire’s First Prince, and the Empire’s most prestigious noble house, had suffered a severe blow to their pride.
The Empire was a massive fortress that possessed a pathological obsession with the reputation it had built over countless years, and it tolerated not even the smallest scratch.
The fact that they had failed to notice a Demon King operating in the shadows within their own territory was also one of the things that struck directly at their reverse scale.
In other words, the Empire would inevitably move in order to restore its wound.
“...Honestly.”
Berje lamented.
“This is a damn dogshit situation.”
Wasn’t it?
“You worm-like bastard. All because of you alone.”
Berje ground his teeth. His gaze settled on the soul clenched within his grasp.
- T, that’s impossible! Why would I...!
“You stupid fool. Did you think death would let you escape my hand? Did you think death would solve everything?”
To not even know what it meant to become a Black Mage, what it meant to belong to a Demon King.
Well, it had been hundreds of years since Black Mages had disappeared from Arein, and Vairif had become a Black Mage by his own power rather than through a Demon King, so it was understandable that he would not know.
But that could not become a pardon.
“Look forward to it. You will never be allowed to fade away happily.”
- N, no...!
Vairif’s soul trembled in terror.
And Hero Hillan Cargill, who watched it all, was no different.
* * *
To start with the conclusion, searching for a demon race that did not exist naturally ended in failure.
The only thing the subjugation force gained was the single piece of information that ‘the Demon King of Dark Flame was involved,’ and they suffered enormous losses beyond that.
Instead, they discovered other things.
“There is a dungeon here.”
“There are no traces of other Black Mages.”
The underground dungeon where Vairif had stayed. The existence of that place, located directly beneath the deeply carved crater, astonished everyone.
Because, astonishingly enough, not a single trace of any other person was found.
“Isn’t it possible that Hero Hillan Cargill lied? There was only one Black Mage. There’s no way there were such formidable undead.”
From the First Prince and Second Prince, to the First Princess and Third Prince.
The imperial family members who commanded each unit formed a separate gathering. A tent bearing the imperial banner was erected not far from the crater.
At the Second Prince’s words, the First Prince snorted.
“Stop spouting nonsense.”
“Nonsense?”
“There were two Death Knights. There were dozens of Dullahan, and there were a thousand undead. And there was even a lesser dragon.”
“And who is supposed to believe that what you say is true, Brother?”
“Go outside and grab anyone and ask them.”
“Well, who knows if you’ve already coordinated your stories?”
“You never change, nitpicking over absurdities. You’re not going to claim you didn’t see that explosion, are you?”
“...Well, that’s…”
It was a massive explosion, powerful enough to shake the gorge. And regardless of who caused it, it was also true that the First Prince’s side had suffered heavy losses.
“In that case, I’ll believe it’s true for now.”
“It’s not a matter of belief. It is the truth.”
“But no matter how you think about it, it makes no sense that one person did all that!”
“Brother is correct. Alone, it would be absolutely impossible. Therefore....”
Martin cut in.
“There is no other answer except that a Demon King deliberately intervened.”
The other three imperial family members nodded. If a Black Mage could do such a thing, there was only one explanation: that he had been granted that much power by a Demon King.
“The Empire has truly been taken lightly. For a mere Demon King to dare....”
Quiet fury spread faintly through the air.
“But do you truly believe it was the Demon King of Dark Flame?”
“Then what?”
“Could it not have been the False Demon King?”
“He believed until the very end that he would be saved. You don’t think that was acting as well, do you?”
“Well, if that were acting, he wouldn’t have been a Black Mage but an actor. Or perhaps a politician.”
At the First Prince’s assertion, the Second Prince nodded. The image of him cursing the Demon King while shedding tears of blood, and then vomiting blood and dying the moment he spoke the Demon King’s name, was deeply engraved in everyone’s minds.
“However, there is also a need to consider why the False Demon King came to be called ‘false.’”
“Do you really think he would suddenly do something this blatantly stupid and get exposed now, after being cautious for over a hundred years?”
“That certainly does seem strange.”
“And the Demon King of Dark Flame has precedent for hiding the tower itself. Even if other Demon Kings might resort to such crude methods they no longer use, it wouldn’t be strange for him.”
At the First Prince’s words, the imperial family members nodded one by one in agreement.
“In that case, this is no longer a problem of some mere Black Mage. The Empire is being toyed with by a Demon King. If not for Hero Hillan Cargill’s help, no one knows what kind of situation would have unfolded.”
“Are you praising him just because he’s the hero who took your hand?”
“I merely stated the facts.”
“Right, facts are facts. But aren’t you being far too quick to conclude that it isn’t the False Demon King, Brother?”
The Second Prince shrugged and sided with the Third Prince.
“I simply said what is not, is not.”
“Perhaps that’s true.”
“Seeing how close the three of you are, as an elder brother I find it truly admirable.”
“Judging by how you’re saying things you don’t mean, you must be quite angry.”
The Second Prince wore a sardonic smile.
“Enough with the pointless barbs. So what do you intend to do now?”
“And what does Brother intend to do?”
Those who had suffered the greatest losses were the First Prince and the First Princess. Accordingly, their anger was the greatest.
“I will return to the imperial capital. I will submit a report on this matter to His Majesty the Emperor and formally propose the subjugation of the Demon King.”
The First Prince sought to erase the direct culprit who had created the Black Mage and brought about this entire incident.
“I intend to search for any Black Mages that might still remain and extract as much as possible from them.”
The First Princess believed that traces related to Black Mages and the demon race still remained.
“This is nice and clean. There’s not even a corpse of the Black Mage left, so there’s nothing to argue over. I, too, would like to see the face of that insolent Demon King bastard at least once.”
The corpse of the Black Mage, assassinated by the demon race, had turned to dust and vanished as it was. There were no traces of the demon race anywhere either, so there was no proof left that they themselves had defeated the Black Mage.
However, since the culprit had been identified through the Black Mage’s final testimony, their anger did not lose its direction.
Though it was evidence based only on words, everyone gathered here was of the imperial family. They possessed enough power and justification to contend for the throne.
If they said so, then so it was.
The moment the Demon King of Dark Flame spilled from the Black Mage’s mouth, the moment they acknowledged it, the answer was decided.
“Then is there anything more to see?”
Let’s withdraw.
The four imperial family members, who had been keeping one another in check for the sake of the throne, joined hands.
And their target was the Demon King of Dark Flame.
For Berje, it was the worst possible outcome.
* * *
“Hahaha....”
Laughter escaped him.
“Hahahahaha...!”
It really came out like madness.
Suddenly, the past came to mind.
That time when he abducted the Crown Prince of Zespine, and the Empire’s soldiers came flooding in like a zombie horde.
That hellish time when blocking them only brought stronger ones, and blocking those brought even stronger ones still.
On the surface, the subjugation had been a success.
They had killed the Black Mage, and the undead had all returned to their original forms, so it wasn’t an incorrect statement.
But that wasn’t the end. It was the beginning.
“Hero Hillan.”
Having returned to the imperial capital, Martin summoned Hillan and Berje.
“I never thought I would be able to keep my promise to you this quickly.”
From Berje’s perspective, it was something he had desperately hoped would never come to pass, nothing more than a hastily cobbled excuse he had used to attach Hillan to Martin.
“It has been decided to launch a hero’s march against the Demon King of Dark Flame.”
...Good heavens.
He had a hunch that things would progress this way. Still, hearing it directly from a prince he met again in the imperial capital only days later felt different.
“To think that wasn’t enough after kidnapping Kaede, and now he pulls something like this. The Demon King of Dark Flame, who dared to toy with the Empir,e will never sleep peacefully with both legs stretched out.”
It was truly so. Berje felt as if his blood was drying up day by day. He racked his brain until it felt ready to burst, but no good ideas came to him.
“But the Tower of Dark Flame is different from before.”
“Right. The very existence of the tower was concealed. That’s why you failed as well.”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“Honestly, that troubles us as well.”
If only they could find the tower, the Empire was confident it could trample everything in a single stroke.
No matter that he was a Demon King, he was merely a greenhorn who had been summoned just over a year ago.
Before the true might of the Empire, he was nothing more than a slightly troublesome monster.
But Ergest was different.
That place was not a domain of humans.
Hapstrain Gorge was the same, but Ergest, where snow fell year-round and the terrain was far harsher, was beyond comparison with Hapstrain.
To begin with, the level of monsters inhabiting the area was far higher.
“In the end, what matters is breaking through those harsh conditions and finding the tower. But it will never be easy.”
Why was a mountain range called a mountain range? It was not a single mountain, but a massive flow of many mountains clustered together, and its domain was vast enough to rival an entire kingdom.
‘Not finding it’ was not an option.
The issue was when they would find it, and at what cost.
How to shorten that was ultimately the key.
“That is correct.”
“And on top of that, His Majesty regards this as an extension of the Black Mage subjugation.”
“...What you mean by that is?”
“Exactly what you’re thinking.”
“I don’t know if it’s appropriate for me to say this, but....”
“Go on.”
“Isn’t that far too complacent?”
No matter how mighty the Empire was, this was Ergest. If the Empire and Ergest shared a border, that would be one thing, but it was unmistakably the territory of another nation.
They couldn’t even deploy an army, and yet they were going to split their forces further?
By Hillan’s common sense, it was impossible to understand.
“I understand. I think so as well. But it is His Majesty’s will, and in the Empire, His Majesty’s will is absolute.”
“Good heavens.”
Hillan was aghast. Berje felt relieved, yet also enraged.
Having their forces dispersed was good, but at the same time it meant the Empire was looking down on him that much.
How dare mere humans look down on him, a Demon King?
“In that case, it works out well. I will definitely bring Kaede back. And so, there is one thing I would like to ask of you.”
“I will, of course, search for the tower together with Your Highness.”
Whether Berje wanted it or not, since they had joined up with the Third Prince under the pretext of Ergest, it couldn’t be helped.
“Thank you.”
“It is only natural.”
The prince and the hero clasped each other’s hands.
* * *
There was no justification to refuse.
To Martin, Hillan was the hero who wanted to conquer the Tower of Dark Flame more than anyone.
If there was even the slightest chance of increasing their odds, doing whatever it took was the right choice.
“Your Highness, ascending Ergest requires extensive preparations. I would like to send Pale ahead first.”
“That’s true.”
What Hillan could do for Berje was to give another reason and allow him to leave the imperial capital.
“Damn it, damn it, damn it...!”
Berje left the Empire using a transport magic circle. Changing robes multiple times to avoid revealing his route, he arrived at Hortonwork.
And there, he discovered yet more irritating pests.
‘These worm-like things.’
They were Arkan’s hounds searching Ergest for Lavinia Arkan.
He wanted to kill them all, but for now he held back.
Avoiding them, he returned to the tower. The first floor of the tower was an empty maze. However, in his vision, he could see the mana cannons hidden within the walls. Seeing that they were almost complete gave him a measure of reassurance.
“Demon King! You’re back!”
“Demon King!”
The dwarf and the mad princess greeted him, but Berje waved his hand dismissively and passed them by.
He went past the empty second floor, then past the third floor, where Ellena was wheezing.
“Demon King.”
“You have returned?”
On the fourth floor, the Spirit Sorceress of Darkness, the Dark Knight, and the elves welcomed him.
He admired the now quite substantial structure, but he had no time to spare.
Just as Berje was about to head straight to the fifth floor, he hesitated. Come to think of it, they were now full-fledged members of the tower.
If something had to be done to block the Empire, they would have no choice but to do it together.
“You there. Go to the fifth floor and call Gordon. And you, go to the first floor and bring Roger and Lavinia.”
“Yes, Demon King.”
The elves who were singled out scattered.
“Is something wrong? Demon King, you look pale.”
Ernan approached with concern.
“There is. And it’s something very big.”
“...If it’s big enough for you to say that, then it must really be serious.”
“It is.”
“What is it?”
“The Empire is coming.”
“The Empire?”
“The First Prince, the Second Prince, the First Princess, and even the Third Prince. All four imperial family members with a chance at succession.”
“...You mean my elder brother?”
Clatter-
Kaede dropped her sword.