Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 439

For the moment, among the second-year students at the Temple, only four knew that Reinhart was the Demon King: Vertus, Charlotte, Ellen, and Harriet.

A strict order of silence had been issued, and since it would not benefit anyone for this news to spread, the others could only sense that the atmosphere at the Temple was somewhat strange. They had no idea what was going on.

Even so, everyone found it odd that Reinhart had not been seen at all for several days.

When they were asked where Reinhart had gone, both Ellen and Harriet feigned ignorance. For the past few days, Ellen had not attended any classes. She simply stayed holed up in the Royal Class dormitory, doing nothing.

Ellen sat in a corner of the training grounds, leaning against the wall, staring at nothing.

She had become a Swordmaster. It was a miraculous event—the emergence of the youngest Swordmaster in history.

Ellen Artorius’s name would go down in history.

“...”

But what did that matter? Ellen sat lifelessly in the farthest corner of the training grounds, her head buried between her knees.

What she had gained was strength, and the truth. She only had to lose Reinhart.

However, Ellen felt as if she had lost everything.

When Charlotte had suggested looking for traces of the Demon King, Ellen didn’t really expect the trail to lead to him.

It was supposed to be a desperate attempt to grasp at straws. Yet, within two days, they had uncovered the identity of the Demon King. The truth she had wanted to know turned out to be the worst possible truth, forcing her to confront it directly.

What did all their time spent together mean? From that first day all the way until this present moment, what did the time she spent with Reinhart mean? What did Reinhart truly think of her?

Her brother had killed the Demon King, so there was no way he could have liked her, the sister of the one who had killed his father.

After they had grown somewhat close, Ellen had confessed to Reinhart that she was the sister of Ragan Artorius.

What had Reinhart thought at that moment? Reflecting on his reaction, he didn’t seem all that surprised. Perhaps Reinhart had known everything all along.

Ellen pondered this question, but she couldn’t find the answer.

Ellen had played a decisive role in tracking down the Demon King, so if she wanted to see Reinhart, she would have been allowed to. However, faced with the certain fact that Reinhart was the Demon King, she felt that there was nothing she could say.

Reinhart’s engagement to Charlotte had not been a difficult choice, or anything else; it was likely a means to seize control of the empire. He had also created the Magic Research Club through Harriet to produce items to strengthen his army.

Then what about her? What had she been to him? What did Reinhart want from her? If his goal was to instill a sense of betrayal and despair, then Reinhart had succeeded.

The person she loved was actually the son of the Demon King who had killed her brother. The Demon King’s son had approached her while knowing that.

Was this Reinhart’s idea of revenge? She thought he liked her. She thought he would like her. But did he actually hate her more than anyone else? Did he hate her so much, the sister of the one who had killed his father, that he wanted to torment her in the most cruel way possible?

He had spent more time with her than anyone else, misleading her, all to nurture the betrayal, deprivation, and despair that she would eventually feel. How much hatred would it take to do such a thing?

Ellen never thought that Reinhart hated her, and she had never sensed anything to indicate as much.

The old Demon King was dead, and the Dark Land had been destroyed along with him.

The new Demon King, who had lost everything, whose world had been destroyed, had no reason to like the empire, humanity, or her at all.

Reinhart had never liked her, not even once, from the beginning.

That’s what she thought.

“...”

But it felt like a lie.

There were countless moments and times that remained as evidence that Reinhart liked her. He wouldn’t have acted that way if he didn’t.

It seemed like Reinhart liked her.

It seemed like he liked her, as much as she liked him, or perhaps even more. His expressions, the words they’d exchanged, and the memories they’d shared could not all have been lies. Those feelings and words couldn’t have been feigned. That’s what she thought.

But the reality was filled with reasons for Reinhart to hate her rather than like her.

Sob...

“Ugh...” Ellen sniffled, her face buried between her knees.

Reinhart had to hate humanity. Reinhart had to hate the empire. And he had to hate the hero who’d delivered the final blow that led to the collapse of the Dark Land, Ragan Artorius. So, he had to also hate and despise her, his kin.

All the moments they spent together, which seemed too real to doubt, would surely be lies.

Reinhart hated her. Then why hadn’t he killed her? There had been plenty of opportunities to kill her, even as she grew excessively strong.

There were many ways to handle it without using his own hands. Why had he kept her alive thus far? Why had he watched over her all this time? Was it because he wanted to plunge her into this despair rather than kill her?

Death was too easy and convenient. Was it to make her feel the despair of being betrayed by the one she loved most, after having lost everything?

No. Ellen had earnestly taught Reinhart the sword for a long time. Reinhart had worked hard on his own, but Ellen’s help had been crucial for him to reach his current level.

Ellen had taught the way of the sword to the Demon King himself. She had been used all along. She had taught sword-fighting to her mortal enemy. She had taught him diligently, not knowing he was her mortal enemy.

Did it have to be her who taught him the sword? She didn’t know. Ellen couldn’t understand Reinhart’s heart, or the Demon King’s motives.

“...”

Ellen just cried.

All because she had caught onto the Demon King’s trail. Just as her brother had caught the Demon King, she too had caught him.

They would become famous as the hero siblings, and their names would go down in history because of it.

But everything was over. Therefore, there was nothing left for Ellen to do but cry.

Wooong...

At the sudden sound, Ellen lifted her head. She hadn’t called for it with her heart, yet something floated in the air before her.

“Lament...?”

Floating before her was the Sword of the Moon, appearing even without her summoning it.

Lament had been summoned, but it didn’t appear as it usually did. The sacred sword Lament, which often had a sinister aura, as if it could slice through the moon, looked different than usual.

Lament’s blade was shrouded in darkness.

No, it wasn’t darkness. Ellen could see sparkling lights shining within the pitch-black blade of Lament.

It wasn’t darkness. It seemed as though Lament’s blade was reflecting a piece of the night sky, or perhaps as if a fragment of the night or the void of space was being projected onto it.

“What... is this?”

Ellen grasped Lament, which floated in the air. Starlight, fragments of the universe, and swirling galaxies shone within the pitch-black blade.

The condition required to unlock Lament was tears, which meant sorrow.

Lament responded to Ellen’s sorrow.

The true power of Lament, the relic of the moon god Mensis, was revealed. A fragment of the night, in the form of a sword.

Ellen stared blankly at Lament, the Void Sword.

***

Ellen and Charlotte had yet to recover from the shock. Both had not shown up for Temple classes, finding it overwhelming even to tend to their wounds, and remained secluded.

Vertus was trying to manage the situation with minimal damage, tucking away any remaining signs of discord or destruction, doing his best to sort things out.

The Demon King had asked to be killed. But with the uncertainty of what the Demon King’s death might bring and the whereabouts of Akasha still unconfirmed, Vertus was caught between the feeling that he needed to act and the inability to, which was constantly wearing on his nerves.

All of Reinhart’s actions up to this point were being reinterpreted under the premise that he was the Demon King.

He had gotten close to Ellen and Charlotte for revenge.

He had used Ellen to hone his swordsmanship, and had intended to swallow up the empire through Charlotte.

The development of the Power Cartridge and Moonshine was to strengthen his army, and lastly...

“What was the research on dimensional magic for...?” Vertus asked quietly, sitting across from Harriet.

Harriet seemed to still be in despair. Vertus was spending time in the upper floors of the detention facility where Reinhart was being held.

It was a dangerous place, but it was as important as it was dangerous, and thus Vertus couldn’t leave. So Vertus stayed there, regularly receiving progress reports and being updated on the necessary facts.

Reinhart was in the basement of the building, while in the upper office, Harriet and Vertus sat facing each other.

There could be no misunderstanding. It was undeniable that Reinhat was the Demon King. His appearance had merely been altered by some kind of unknown magic.

It was not only Reinhart’s confession. The expression and the eyes of the lycanthrope that had been captured with him, and the way it howled every time violence was inflicted on Reinhart, served as more than enough evidence.

Reinhart was the Demon King. Harriet could no longer deny it. Then, what did he mean when he said he was trying to protect everyone? Was it just a lie, meant to sow confusion until the very end?

Harriet, unable to be certain of anything, answered the various questions Vertus had asked her thus far. It was Harriet who had spoken about the Power Cartridge and Moonshine.

Vertus had asked her about the achievements of the Magic Research Club, and Harriet, feeling she could no longer lie, had told him.

When Reinhart’s actions were seen as part of his plan for the reconstruction of the Dark Land and for revenge against humanity, many things could be explained. However, the intent of his research into dimensional magic remained elusive.

Reinhart’s obsession with dimensional magic was puzzling.

“Initially, he suggested it out of curiosity, wondering whether another world existed, right?”

“... Yeah.”

Another world... It was an utterly random notion. However, Harriet, intrigued, began to research it from various angles, and eventually gained access to the Imperial Magic Department’s research archives. This led her to study warp gates rather than portals to another world.

“What was he planning to do if he found another world?”

For a Demon King, it seemed not just illogical, but also an excessively random desire.

Although Vertus had dismissed it as nonsense, Reinhart had spoken to him about something called the Gate Incident. He claimed that when the Gate Incident occurred, most of humanity would die, and he said he was trying to prevent it. Of course, Vertus didn’t believe it.

If this search for a world in another dimension was a lie, then what was his true intention? Was it true that he genuinely did not remember the existence of Akasha?

Furthermore, Rother Dwin, the mage from Cantus Magna whom Harriet had met at the Imperial Magic Research Department, had been confirmed to have a connection to Akasha.

“It seems like this also ties back to that Akasha, or whatever it is...”

Rother Dwin had said Akasha was an object that could make one a god, and Reinhart had said it was a tool of creation.

If one could create a world using this tool of creation, the idea of becoming a god by creating a world according to one’s wishes made some sense.

The former Demon King Baalier had intended to use Akasha to create a world and relocate the demons there. Yet Reinhart, who possessed Akasha, had been unaware of it until now.

It was impossible to discern where the truth ended and the lies began. However, the Demon King had requested to be killed before Akasha was used for destruction.

If he was so willing to give up his life, what had all his efforts been for?

“I want to... believe in Reinhart...” Harriet said in a despairing tone, her face all twisted up, even while knowing she shouldn’t have been saying such things. She covered her face with her hands and sobbed. She wanted to believe in Reinhart.

Vertus fully understood Harriet’s feelings. How nice it would be if that were true. How nice it would be if Reinhart were just a good guy.

But that was impossible.

“Saint-Ouen.”

“Uh, uh-huh...”

“I’m sorry to say this, but can you listen?”

“Yeah... What is it?”

“I killed your father, the Duke of Saint-Ouen, and wiped out the Duchy of Saint-Ouen. I killed and massacred all the people living there, even capturing them as slaves to sell.”

“... What?”

Harriet was dumbfounded by his sudden harsh words.

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Vertus tapped the table with a stern expression.

“And there’s a button over here. If you press this button, you can do to me exactly what was done to you. The empire will be destroyed, everyone in the imperial family will die, and everything about the empire will vanish. Are you confident you wouldn’t press that button?”

Harriet bit her lip.

Reinhart was the Demon King, and humanity had taken everything from him. Not only was there no reason not to hate humanity, but if there was a mechanism that could be used to channel that hatred, through destruction, there was no reason for him not to activate it.

It was physically impossible for the Demon King to love humanity. It would be logically inconsistent for the Demon King to desire peace.

Reinhart was the Demon King. Therefore, he had no choice but to hate humanity. Believing in Reinhart was impossible.

Just as Vertus had suggested, Harriet reflected on the hypothetical situation laid out before her: her father and entire family had been murdered, everyone in the duchy brutally slaughtered, the very nation itself uprooted, leaving her as the last royal of a devastated kingdom.

What would Harriet de Saint-Ouen do in such a situation? She would be consumed by a desire for revenge. She would undoubtedly commit terrible acts to repay the wrongs done to her. Even just thinking about it led her to see that she would act that way.

The Demon King had suffered such things at the hands of humanity. It was only natural for the Demon King to hate humanity. Wanting to believe in Reinhart was an illogical and foolish desire.

Faced with Vertus’s serious expression, Harriet could no longer speak of wanting to believe in Reinhart.

But...

Even so...

—“Thick-Skull.”

At that moment.

—“No matter what happens... Just remember one thing...”

The words she had heard while barely conscious... Reinhart’s words.

Harriet still wanted to believe in those words.

—“I wanted to save everyone...”

Reinhart’s words, which seemed to foreshadow a sad fate... The earnestness and desperation embedded in those words...

Harriet wanted to believe in them.