Chapter 45
Chapter 45
It had been something that happened a day earlier.
I had taken advantage of the deep night and gone to find Chris.
On the next day’s dungeon exploration, Diark, who was in the same party as us, was supposed to summon a demonkin.
According to the original work, it was an obstacle that could be overcome sufficiently with just my or Alice’s combat power, but just in case, I wanted to take out some insurance.
The Blessing of the Silver Veil, which I had practically snatched away and borrowed from Alice, deceived the surveillance systems including the instructors, and I was able to infiltrate Chris’s quarters without much difficulty.
As befitted the residence of an archmage, all kinds of magical devices and defensive spells had been installed, but the Blessing of the Silver Veil deceived even those.
After stealthily infiltrating all the way to the front of her bedroom, I confirmed Chris’s presence inside the room and quietly knocked on the door.
“It’s me.”
“…….”
“……?”
With her eyes, she should have easily pierced through something like a door and checked my face.
I could clearly feel her presence inside, but there was no response at all.
“Chris.”
I called her name once more, but Chris remained silent.
Wondering if something was wrong, I tried to open the door and go in, but I stopped in my tracks at the sound of her voice that immediately followed.
[W-wait a moment!]
It was a very urgent voice, completely different from her usual atmosphere.
At the same time, a chill ran down my spine.
Chris was an indispensable ally to me, alongside the Sword Saint.
Now that the story had twisted away from the original, there was no telling what might have happened to her.
With that thought, I hurriedly flung the door wide open.
“Ah…….”
Chris was staring at me with a dazed expression.
I won’t go so far as to write down exactly what she had been doing.
It was just that, after that, facing her became rather uncomfortable.
…It’s fine, I do it a lot too.
Whether human or elf, sexual desire is natural, yeah.
Anyway, amid the awkward atmosphere, I told her about what was going to happen tomorrow.
At the mention that demonkin would appear, Chris recovered at least a bit of her composure, and I asked her to keep an eye on us in case something unexpected happened.
And now.
When we failed to appear even after the scheduled time had passed, she had personally descended here.
“I heard it was supposed to be a low-ranking demonkin.”
“How would I know something like that would suddenly pop out?”
Chris stared at Aloken with a cold expression.
As guardians of nature, elves were innately repulsed by demonkin.
Since they were a pair that hated each other almost on instinct, the basic setting was that the moment they encountered one another, one of them would be torn apart and die.
[…An elf? To think there was still an elf left in the Middle Realm.]
Unlike the attitude he had shown up until now, Aloken too spewed out primal hatred with a deeply furrowed brow.
“Yeah, because of that demonic dragon of yours, our entire clan was wiped out.”
Kwaaaak.
The power of the chains binding Aloken’s body intensified.
He tried to push it back by drawing up all the demonic energy he had, but since he hadn’t even manifested with his real body and was merely possessing someone, he couldn’t even reach the tips of Chris’s toes.
[Well, for a bit of amusement, it wasn’t bad. I learned of the existence of elves too…….]
Aloken’s eyes turned toward me.
When I met that piercing gaze without avoiding it, he curled his lips into a grin and continued.
[And I found something interesting as well.]
“Who said I’d send you off quietly?”
At the sight of Aloken looking as if he might disappear at any moment, Chris snapped her fingers.
Instantly, a complex magic circle floated in midair, and from within it, a hand suddenly burst forth.
[Kuh……!]
That hand, shriveled and dried like a mummy’s, soon burrowed into Aloken’s body and pulled out something pitch-black.
[Y-you…!]
A rough shout burst from his mouth.
But Chris didn’t even blink, merely giving him a chilling smile.
“I’ll be keeping part of your rank. If you want it, come and get it.”
The demonic energy that had been surging from August’s body let out an indescribable shriek.
It was a grotesque sight, as if it were cursing her, but soon it scattered into the air and disappeared.
Clatter.
The chains that had been binding August’s body were released.
She tucked away the crystal she had extracted from Aloken’s body into her bosom and turned around.
“That’s the end of my role, right? Then I’ll be off.”
Officially, she was a nonexistent being.
Soon, Chris would transform into the headmaster of Bayern Academy and appear before us.
“Whew…….”
With the incident more or less settled, I collapsed right where I was.
Physical fatigue was overwhelming, but mental exhaustion was even worse.
‘How many crises did I get through in just one day?’
It was only the first main episode.
The fact that I was floundering this badly just trying to finish that one cleanly was pathetic enough to bring tears to my eyes.
“Still…….”
I looked at Alice, who was sleeping softly beside me.
As long as the result was good, wasn’t that enough? Even though I had consumed the Blessing of Invisibility, it was a rechargeable artifact, so if I found a method, that would be that.
“What on earth.”
At the voice I heard nearby, I turned my head and saw Leysias with her mouth agape, her face looking as if her soul had left her body.
“What on earth just happened?”
I felt a bit of sympathy for her too.
If things had followed the original plot, Leysias would have played a decent role as well, but her current state was nothing more than utter bewilderment.
“In this world, all sorts of things happen in places you don’t know about.”
It wouldn’t be strange at all for an editor possessing a thug from a novel to be running around causing havoc, right?
After Chris left, the academy supervisors stormed into the dungeon, and with the injured being taken care of, our eventful dungeon exploration came to an end.
Ridiculously enough, this incident was announced as a conspiracy by terrorist forces attempting to undermine the Empire.
Someone had installed some kind of trap inside the dungeon, and a student who thought it was treasure touched it, causing a curse and resulting in a commotion.
I heard that, as a result, several related individuals had their heads roll.
Not figuratively, but literally.
A day later, all the students from the three parties rescued from the dungeon were hospitalized in the infirmary inside the academy.
Even Leysias, whose injuries were the lightest, needed to rest for a week, so the remaining ones’ wounds were no small matter either.
For reference, Alice still hadn’t woken up, as if her stamina hadn’t yet recovered.
According to the healer, there were no noticeable external injuries, but the vitality throughout her body had been depleted and was in the process of being restored.
Considering how severe the injuries to her entire body had been, the effectiveness of a myth-grade artifact really seemed incredible.
For reference, I had retrieved the Blessing of Invisibility, but since I didn’t know the charging method, it seemed it would take some time before it could be reused.
Once things had stabilized somewhat, the students who had slept like the dead until morning were now awake and chatting in small groups.
Since it had been a rare experience, they made a big show of it as if it were their specialty, and the others went along with it, praising their own contributions.
“Gaus has been taken back.”
And in the midst of that, Delke, who had come to see me under the nominal pretext of being our homeroom instructor, sat down in front of my bed and spoke quietly.
Quite amazingly, August hadn’t died.
I was sure I had crushed his heart when I finished him off, thoroughly enough that he wouldn’t be able to move again.
But whether Aloken had restored it, or whether Chris’s handling had been good, he was clinging to life, even if only in a vegetative state.
I had thought he was already dead, so I had just roughly picked him up with one hand and taken him out.
Since it involved a member of the imperial family—no, a direct imperial prince—the matter had also been handled more quickly.
Being “taken back” probably meant he had been summoned to the Imperial Palace.
Having summoned a demonkin—on top of that, a heavyweight like a Hell Duke—he likely wouldn’t be able to move a finger for quite some time.
Just being alive was a miracle, so he probably couldn’t even complain.
“Oh, right, kids. Your scores are perfect. They said bonus points were added for defeating a demonkin. Congratulations.”
Suddenly, Delke said this to the students who had been chatting away.
At the word “perfect score,” they looked at one another’s faces, and soon the infirmary erupted with cheers and applause.
“Haha…….”
At the sight of the students rejoicing so purely, a hollow laugh escaped me.
Would they still look like that if they knew that the thing that had appeared before them was a Hell Duke, infamous even within the Demon Realm?
What they should have been happy about wasn’t something trivial like a perfect score, but the fact that they were alive.
‘I’ve really become an old fogey.’
Maybe because I had suffered alone, everything seemed twisted and annoying.
For reference, I also received perfect scores in both the written and practical portions of this exam, solidifying my position as first place.
Leysias followed behind me to take second place, and Elysia unfortunately ended up in third.
August…… I figured that was probably the end for him.
Anyway, the first exam of the first semester ended like this.
A year at Bayern Academy was divided into three semesters.
The first semester ended with an exam evaluating our performance so far, followed by vacation, and I was ambitiously planning what I would do during that time.
A month and a half of being free from the Imperial Palace.
I had intended to first find a place for my forces to gather, as well as seek out scattered talents and hidden opportunities, but everything went up in smoke because of a single letter Chris had delivered.
“Damn that bastard of an emperor…….”
The letter bore the emperor’s seal, ordering me to return to the Imperial Palace.
In other words, it was an imperial command.
If I refused, it would become difficult to set foot in this Empire from that day on, so I had no choice but to comply.
“That’s a shame.”
At the news that I would be going back to my hometown during the vacation, Elysia said this with a regretful expression.
She still didn’t know that I was a prince, but she was grateful for the fact that her life had been saved thanks to me during the incident in the dungeon.
So, taking that opportunity to express my thanks as well, and to have a sort of social gathering with the friends I had grown close to during this semester, I invited a few of them to the Britain Ducal House.
When people thought of the Britain Ducal House, they tended to imagine a barren land constantly at war with monsters year-round, but on the other hand, it was also a resort area with a developed tourism industry.
From old-fashioned castles to natural scenery that led to the sea, it was said to be worth visiting even if one had to risk fighting monsters.
The group consisted of Alice, Maria, Leysias, Diark, Werner, and Yuria.
I wondered if it was a coincidence that all the major supporting characters were included, but the invitation to the Britain Ducal House was a storyline that existed in the original work as well.
However, the change, if it could be called that, was that the composition of the group was different from back then.
In the original work, the protagonist Alice obtained the sealed holy sword, Excalibur, in the Britain Ducal House.
It was an indispensable weapon for the battles to come, one that not only led to her awakening but also possessed abilities that countered demonkin.
To be honest, I felt a bit tempted, but I already had the demonic sword Tyrfing.
So this time, I steeled myself and decided to yield it to Alice.
“I’ll finish my business and join you right away, so don’t ditch me.”
If the protagonist was going, there was no way I wouldn’t go.
If I was delayed, I’d even slap the emperor in the face and run out if I had to.