漫画大王

Chapter 326

A strange creature, presumed to be a demon, had flown through the night sky, and large-scale destructive magic had been cast, affecting the weather.

“Demons appeared!”

Naturally, such rumors quickly reached the Temple.

Connor Lint, who had picked up the rumors from the streets, was excitedly recounting them, while I listened quietly.

“Demons? What’s this about demons all of a sudden?”

“They say demons appeared in the southern part of the capital last night. It was a huge commotion.”

“What exactly happened?”

“I didn’t hear the details. They just said demons appeared...”

Since it had only happened the previous night, the specific details were not yet known. Everyone was naturally shocked by the sudden news of a demon attack during the festival.

It was breakfast time, and Ellen looked at me with a serious expression.

“Could it be those demons from before?” she asked.

“... Probably,” I replied.

“What is it this time?”

“I don’t know...”

Ellen, Harriet, Riana, and all our classmates were dumbfounded by the sudden news of demons.

There was no way anyone would suspect me.

Even though I hadn’t explained my whereabouts the previous day, thinking that I was involved in the attack would be too far-fetched.

Suspecting that a friend might be a demon was absurd.

At most, Ellen might suspect me of some crime committed via the Rotary Club, but the scale of the demon attack was too large to be connected to me.

Sometimes, something so absurd happens that it doesn’t even raise suspicion.

Charlotte and Vertus would undoubtedly be busy again, and the conclusion was clear.

A state of emergency would be declared in the capital, and the festival would be cut short.

***

As I expected, Charlotte was absent, and Sabioleen Tana, who had been acting as a temporary dormitory supervisor, was not in the dormitory either. She had probably also returned to the palace.

It was inevitable, since elite holy knights had been massacred near the capital.

If the southern district of the capital had been attacked instead of the outskirts, the casualties would have been enormous.

Given the crowded conditions, if even one of the highest-level destructive spells used by the high-ranking demons had been cast anywhere inside the capital, tens of thousands of people could have easily died.

The festivities were over.

It was time for everyone to go home.

In an empty club room on the top floor of the dormitory, I sat with Olivia and Adriana.

The previous night, Adriana had stayed in Olivia’s room with the dorm supervisor’s permission. This would usually have been impossible, but since Adriana had once been a Temple student, it was easy for her to gain permission.

“Have you been well, junior...?”

“Yes, well...”

Adriana had given the excuse that she was just visiting, but the darkness in her expression made it clear that something was wrong.

Olivia wasn’t much different.

The Nameless Order had tried to use Adriana as bait to lure Olivia out.

It must have been a huge shock. Adriana’s distrust of the church had been growing, and she had tried to suppress those doubts by going back to her life in the monastery. But even within those walls, she had been deeply disappointed.

She couldn’t be in a good state of mind.

I had saved both Olivia and Adriana, but they didn’t know that.

I didn’t want to boast about it, nor could I.

Olivia’s expression was a mix of gloom and guilt. She probably thought that I had tried to do something for her yesterday, and she had stood me up by disappearing.

Olivia looked at Adriana as if seeking her consent. I could see Adriana nodding slightly.

“Have you heard about the demon attack...?”

“I don’t know the details, but yes.”

Olivia trusted me.

“We were at the scene of the demon attack...”

Olivia seemed intent on telling me everything rather than making excuses.

***

Hearing the story I already knew from Olivia’s mouth was awkward.

Pretending to be surprised was harder than I thought.

They managed to keep the story rather short.

The Mother Superior of the Art-Ouen Monastery, where Adriana was staying, was part of a secret religious organization called the Nameless Monastery and had handed her over to Leverier Lanche.

The Mother Superior had been deceived as well. She hadn’t expected Adriana to be used as bait.

Adriana had no choice but to go along quietly, fearing that any wrong move could endanger not only herself but also the Mother Superior.

As things turned out, the Commander of the Order of the Holy Knights had used her as bait to lure Olivia in. Olivia had headed to the scene as soon as she’d received the letter.

There, while confronting Leverier Lanche, demons had suddenly appeared.

“The strange thing is... those demons saved us...”

As she recounted this portion of the story, both their expressions were filled with confusion.

After being abducted by the grotesque and terrifying demon, Olivia had thought about how she would have to fight in order to keep Adriana safe.

Strangely, though, the demon dropped them off far away from the abandoned monastery and left.

Then, the monastery came under attack from large-scale destructive magic, and the two of them fled.

“... I can’t understand it,” I remarked, and Adriana and Olivia nodded in agreement.

Pretending not to know and acting surprised was exhausting. However, given the seriousness of the situation, I had to do my best.

I was relieved that they had told me all of this. That meant I could discuss strategy with them.

“For now, it’s best not to tell anyone else,” I said.

“... We think so too.”

“We don’t know the reasons behind the demons’ actions, but if this fact gets out, people might accuse you of colluding with demons... In any case, it’s unlikely that any of the holy knights survived...”

There were no survivors at the place of the massacre. There were surely witnesses who had seen the demonic form of Sarkegar flying about, but I had made sure that there were no survivors among those involved in the battle, including the holy knights who had tried to flee.

The rumors spreading through the capital likely originated from those who had seen the flying demon and the large-scale magical attacks from afar.

The fact that holy knights had been involved hadn’t been disclosed to the public yet.

“We don’t know that.”

Olivia and Adriana didn’t know the exact details of the battle, so it was natural that they would doubt me. But there were no witnesses to the battle.

“Let’s assume for now that all the holy knights at the scene were annihilated,” I said, looking at Adriana. “Do you think anyone else knows that you were there?”

If the surviving members of the Nameless Order in other regions knew that Adriana and Olivia had been there, it would be a problem.

There could be questions about Adriana and Olivia: ‘If everyone at the scene was killed by demons, how did you two survive?’

They wouldn’t have an explanation to that question.

“I’m not sure...” Olivia said, biting her lip.

“Even if the others don’t know, the Mother Superior knows... that I was with the Nameless Order...” Adriana said, her expression growing dark.

The Mother Superior, who had handed Adriana over to Leverier Lanche.

While the Mother Superior might be in the dark for now, once she learned that the Nameless Order’s forces was annihilated by a demon attack, she would naturally question Adriana’s survival.

‘If everyone died, how did you come back alive?’ Adriana would inevitably face that question.

“... You shouldn’t return to the monastery, senior.”

“... I guess not.”

If any investigative body discovered this inexplicable incident of them being protected by demons, there would be serious repercussions.

If the choice was to remain silent, then Adriana couldn’t return to the Art-Ouen Monastery.

While Adriana could return to the Temple, there would be a significant risk if her location was officially known.

If anyone in the Nameless Order knew where she was, it would be dangerous for her, and at least one person among them knew for sure that Adriana was under Leverier Lanche’s control.

It would be better for Adriana to be presumed dead.

I was thankful that there was no advanced form of communication or media in the world.

News from the capital would take a while to reach the Art-Ouen Monastery in the Duchy of Saint-Ouen, and even longer for this news to reach the provincial cities of the Duchy.

Since information wasn’t shared in real-time, Adriana didn’t have to go into hiding completely.

She just needed to lay low for a while, somewhere far from public power and influence.

“Staying in the Temple isn’t a good idea. Senior, you should come with me for now. I can find a place for you to stay.”

The Rotary Club headquarters... There were plenty of rooms there, so I could leave Adriana under Loyar’s protection while figuring out her next steps.

“How will you manage this, junior?”

“... Yeah. What do you have in mind?”

Neither of them knew that I was part of an organization called the Rotary Club.

“It’s too much trouble to explain. Just go along with it.”

“... Okay. Thank you, junior.”

Neither of them knew anything about my background, since there was no need to boast about being part of an organization that was close to being criminal, even if not outrightly criminal.

When I thought about it, the only ones who knew about my connection to the Rotary Club were Harriet, Ellen, and the prince and princess.

And perhaps, at a stretch, the three troublemakers who used to mock me as a beggar.

“Let’s move.”

Letting Adriana stay in the Temple for too long wasn’t a good idea.

We had to get out of the Temple.

***

The atmosphere in the capital was tense.

People were rushing about frantically.

—They say demons have appeared...

—We need to get back quickly.

—The queue for the gate stretches for hours. It’s chaos.

—What if the demons attack the capital too?

—They might.

The rumor that demons had appeared in the southern part of the capital had already spread widely.

The magic trains, which were already crowded due to the festival, were now even more packed, making them an unviable option for transportation.

“We’ll have to walk,” I said to Olivia and Adriana.

“Yes.”

“Seems like it.”

It was utter chaos.

This wasn’t the usual crowd wandering around to see the sights during the festival.

A massive wave of people were trying to leave the capital as quickly as possible, not only overwhelming the areas around the magic train stations, but also near the large warp gates.

—Please queue up in an orderly manner! There are no priority passes!

There was a larger-than-usual contingent of soldiers overseeing the queues at the warp gates, and people were crowding not just the large warp gates, but also the medium and small ones.

—Let’s get out of the capital for now and come back when things calm down.

—Yes.

It seemed many people thought of the capital as a dangerous place, and were trying to get as far away from the capital as possible if they couldn’t immediately return to their hometowns. They would return to the capital and use the large warp gates to go home once things settled down.

The chaos from the previous day’s events had all the tourists in the capital into a panic.

I was sweating.

It was terrifying to realize how many people were affected by my actions.

I had killed Leverier Lanche.

I still believed it was necessary, but seeing how my actions could literally turn the world upside down was overwhelming.

We walked through the chaotic streets as I led Olivia and Adriana towards the Rotary Club headquarters.

Demons and the Demon King...

I realized just how much influence these entities had on the territories of humanity.

The Great War had ended.

People should have gradually forgotten about the Demon King and the demons. However, because of my actions the day before...

—The Demon King... has returned...

—Don’t say such ominous things, you idiot!

—The Demon King is seeking revenge! He wasn’t really dead! Artorius didn’t kill the Demon King!

—No... it can’t be...

People were dishing out wild theories and passing them off as facts.

Numerous wild rumors were growing and spreading, such as “the Demon King wasn’t dead,” or “the next Demon King was seeking revenge,” or perhaps “the surviving remnants of the demons would continue to throw the continent into chaos.”

Fear paralyzed a person’s sense of rationality.

If the demons had really been seeking revenge, they would have targeted the capital or the royal palace, not an abandoned monastery in the outskirts to the south.

But no one was talking about that.

—If the Demon King has really been resurrected... Who will kill him?

They were only worried about who would kill the new Demon King if he had indeed returned.

Adriana and Olivia followed me silently. Since they had been saved by demons, they were likely the most confused by the current situation.

***

Since we were walking instead of taking the magic train, the journey took quite a while.

It would take more than a day or two for people to leave the chaotic capital, like a receding tide.

Since people were crowding around the gates, the other areas were relatively quiet.

“But... Why did the demons attack the Order of the Holy Knights?” asked Adriana.

“I don’t know,” Olivia replied grimly, shaking her head.

They didn’t know why the demons had saved them, or what their purpose was. It was too strange to even hazard a guess.

They couldn’t possibly guess that I, the one walking ahead of them, was the son of the Demon King and had used my subordinates to save them, attacking the Nameless Order instead of the Order of the Holy Knights.

“The demons attacked the Order of the Holy Knights before too.”

“Yes... that’s true.”

“Could it be because of revenge...?”

While Adriana might not know it, Olivia was aware of the truth behind the first attack.

She knew about the corruption and depravity within the Order of the Holy Knights, including the fact that they had taken demon prisoners.

She knew that the demons’ first attack on the Order was to rescue the succubus prisoners. If that was so, then this might not have been an attack on the Nameless Order, but revenge against Leverier Lanche, the former Commander of the Order of the Holy Knights.

Even without going that far, Leverier Lanche, the former Commander of the Order of the Holy Knights, was a war hero of the Great War, and thus an enemy of the demons.

He had lost his power and influence, so attacking him once his power had waned made a lot of sense.

“Revenge... perhaps.”

Olivia’s theory had its own logic.

Olivia’s conclusion was that the events of the day before had not been an attack on the Nameless Order, but an attempt to kill Leverier Lanche.

In reality, things were entirely different.

However, if Olivia chose to interpret the demons’ intentions that way, it was beneficial for me.

Of course, even if she believed that, it was still strange that the demons had rescued Adriana and Olivia.

Olivia seemed to realize something and muttered, “This might be a stretch, but...”

“What is it?”

Olivia looked at Adriana and I. “If the demons did what they did yesterday to take revenge on the Order of the Holy Knights... could it be that they spared us because we were outsiders...?”

Adriana tilted her head. “Sorry?”

“I mean, think about it. It was a remote location, and so it was unlikely that any outsiders would be there... Perhaps they pulled us out intentionally in order to prevent unintended casualties...”

Olivia’s reasoning was that the attack had come first, and the rescue was an afterthought.

If the purpose was to harm humans, there would be no reason to attack the Order of the Holy Knights. Which meant the original intent was to attack the Order of the Holy Knights. However, upon discovering outsiders there, the demons had decided to pull them out to avoid unintended casualties.

“Would demons... really care about such things?”

After all, all humans were seen as enemies by the demons. Adriana seemed unable to understand Olivia’s reasoning.

It was almost as if Olivia was suggesting that demons were kind-hearted.

The common belief was that demons had an unconditional hatred towards humankind and wanted to kill all of them. Naturally, Adriana held this belief as well.

Ultimately, though, demons had saved them.

“Maybe you’re right... maybe it is a bit strange,” Olivia said.

“... I’m not really sure about it either,” Adriana responded.

Both Adriana and Olivia found it difficult to overcome their deeply ingrained prejudices.

Of course, since rescuing them had been the primary objective, any theory Olivia came up with would be incorrect.

Still, it was cute, seeing Olivia furrow her brow and try to reason out the meaning behind the previous day’s events.