CHAPTER 19
The Ex–Demon Lord and a Plan to Attack
Or else that person will die.
Jack had been the one to deliver these disquieting words to me, and I followed him with mounting anxiety to our destination, the nurse’s office at the academy. It was almost serene in there, unlike the chaos currently wreaking havoc on the city.
Count Golde was next to the bed, casting healing spells on…Weiss and looking absolutely fraught with despair. But as soon as he caught sight of me, it dissolved into a look of hope.
“Oh! Thank goodness you’re here, Ard! You’ll be able to heal Weiss, right?!”
Both Golde and Jack simultaneously gave off a “chop, chop! get to it!” vibe, so I nodded once and approached Weiss, who was half-naked with no external wounds. I assumed Golde had sealed those up with his spells, but Weiss’s face was pallid, and he seemed to be on the verge of death.
But that was no biggie. I faced my right palm toward his body, casting Heal, a low-level spell, and witnessed the color returning to his face in no time—until he finally opened his eyes.
“Where am I…?!” Weiss asked, sitting up in his bed and scanning the room with a wild expression.
But it didn’t take him too long to assess the situation. He shot a quick glance at Jack and Golde, who were both giddy with glee.
“I would thank you if I had time,” he apologized before turning to me. “I’ll be brief. My daughter, Ireena…has been abducted.”
“…Ah, I thought as much.”
It may have been what I’d expected, but this news stabbed me in my heart.
Weiss continued on without any regard for my shift in mood. “It’s…Elzard, the Frenzied King of Dragons, who took Ireena. It seems she infiltrated the academy disguised as Jessica, all the while joining forces with the demons and scheming to destroy the world…”
…I see. So Jessica was the traitor, I thought to myself, but I wasn’t all that surprised in truth. I’d noticed something fishy about her for some inexplicable reason. But I hadn’t had solid proof, which meant I hadn’t been able to take drastic measures to kick her out of the academy.
But…to think that her true form was Elzard.
“Whoa, gimme a break. First an Evil God, then the Frenzied King of Dragons? One mythical enemy is plenty…,” Jack noted. The sweat on his face was telling.
“I-isn’t there some sort of mistake? Could it be a phony passing themselves off as Elzard?” Golde suggested, looking dubious.
Weiss let out a labored sigh and shook his head. “My consciousness was drifting in and out, but I managed to assess her fighting abilities. I’d say she’s comparable to the Evil God we destroyed a decade ago… No, maybe even more powerful.”
Golde fell into silence, along with Jack. All three looked forlorn. When it came down to it, this was a difficult situation. That said, what we had to do was simple.
“All we have to do is think about how to bring Ireena back. The strength of our enemies doesn’t change our goal,” I muttered before asking Weiss the one question that’d been bothering me for a while.
“By the way, why in the world did the demons abduct Ireena? I noticed they’ve been targeting her for some time. I assumed it was to get revenge against the heroes who defeated the Evil God, but this incident takes that too far. Could there be an ulterior motive?”
Weiss was quiet for a moment.
“We carry the Olhyde name…but it’s an alias. All of this talk about Baron Olhyde, the one who rules the remote border villages, is a front. My real name is…” He paused for a second before continuing with a decisive look. “Laville. In other words, this nation’s true royal family.”
“Hmm. Got it.”
“…A-aren’t you surprised?”
“I’m just not showing it.”
If I were your average human, I guess now would be the time to express shock. But you have to remember that I’m the ex–Demon Lord who’s lived close to a thousand years in another life. This wasn’t enough to throw me off my A game.
“That said, Weiss, even if you’re the actual king and Ireena is the princess…it still doesn’t explain why the demons would take things this far. Let’s say they abducted Ireena to use her as a bargaining piece for some cause. I still can’t figure out what they’re after. Which makes me believe you’re hiding something else. Am I wrong?”
Weiss gave a pained look and said nothing.
Golde patted his shoulders. “I think we can tell Ard now. Don’t you? There’s no one more trustworthy than him,” he persuaded.
Weiss nodded with newfound resolve. “We…the Laville family…carry the blood of the Evil Gods…!”
His expression said he’d planned on taking this to his grave.
On the other side, Golde and Jack seemed to know this truth, as they kept their composure and looked pointedly at me.
So what? That was my honest-to-goodness reaction to all this.
“A-aren’t you shocked by this news?”
“I’m surprised, but…everything makes sense now. And that outweighs my shock. Ireena was targeted because she carries the blood of the Evil Gods. It’s all coming together. I’m guessing the demons are planning on using her as a sacrifice in their ceremony to resurrect the Evil Gods. She’s a perfect fit, since she carried their bloodline, and they targeted her over you, because she hasn’t matured as a mage yet. Yeah. All the pieces finally fit,” I concluded.
The three stared openmouthed at my torrential monologue.
“Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! That’s my son all right! Ya see, Weiss? He’s sayin’ there’s nothin’ to worry about!” Jack thumped Weiss’s back with a hearty laugh.
“I never imagined someone other than us would take this news in stride… Well, I reckon blood will tell.” Golde fiddled with his goatee with a wry smile.
“…I’m relieved,” Weiss murmured, looking like a heavy burden had been lifted off his shoulders.
Well, I guess this would be a huge revelation for any normal person. But to me, it was like, And? What about it?
In my old life, I’d met a number of people who carried the blood of the Evil Gods, including my own subordinates…and my best friend in that lifetime, Lydia the Champion, which explained my total lack of reaction.
Weiss dropped more tidbits. “Because we worship the Demon Lord as our chief deity, any connection to the Evil Gods immediately becomes a target for utter disgust and loathing. If it came out that the royal family carried their blood in its lineage…the government would be overthrown without a doubt. This blood is a blessing and a curse. It makes our family gifted. That’s why the nation is better off in our hands.”
This was a predicament of all predicaments: It was clear that a nation should be run by the most superior, qualified individuals, but they were the ones who’d be the most discriminated against in this generation.
“That’s why our ancestors created this system. The ‘royal family’ facing the general public is made up of puppets, running everything on the surface while the true royal family gives their input on all the big decisions in the shadows… I think a new system is long overdue, but I haven’t been able to come up with the right solution.”
I began to see that some hardships could be understood only by true kings like Weiss, who’d cast his eyes downward and sighed despondently.
I replied with a simple “I see” before returning to the topic at hand.
“Well, Weiss, I’d like you to grant me access to the treasure vault in the palace. I know this is rude of me, but I have to make it clear that this is an order, not a request. I’m sorry to ask this when you’ve just recovered, but you’ve got to move,” I said curtly.
Weiss seemed to feel the same way, replying, “I leave it to you,” as he quietly got up from the bed.
As we went to leave the room, Golde called out from behind us. “Wh-what are you planning on doing, Ard?!”
“What do I plan to do? Pick up my friend, and that’s it.”
“H-how can you be so calm…?” Golde looked at me blankly for a moment before screwing up his face. “I don’t wanna say this, but we’re talkin’ about Elzard, y’know? Even you…”
Er, sure. More like, Elzard who?
To Golde and other people from modern times, Elzard was a famous white dragon—a single entity with an immense presence. But to me, she was nothing more than a ginormous lizard. Like any other dragon. Then again, I was much weaker now than in my heyday. It’d be a tough fight for sure.
That said, I wasn’t so weak that some wannabe lizard could fling me around as her plaything. Not that I’d say that out loud. I knew trouble followed when I made those kinds of statements. It was what it was.
I thrust out my chest. “Count Golde. Please allow me to inform you,” I declared, loud and proud, “(Demon) Lord knows, the word impossible isn’t in my lexicon.”
…Thanks to Weiss pulling some strings, I was able to enter the treasure vault underground with Weiss and Queen Rosa, who was actually a stand-in for the real royal family. The inner vault was lined with shelves that held a magnificent bunch of national treasures.
A few of them stood out to me: an overcoat, the color of the void. A crimson spear. A pair of azure greaves. These were exactly what I was looking for.
They were known as the Armor of the Demon Lord, or powerful magical equipment made up of 666 pieces that I’d personally crafted in my past life.
In my will, I’d instructed that these pieces be spread out to every corner of the globe. I’d left them as a trump card, should any Evil Gods resurrect after my death. It seemed my subordinates had followed these instructions perfectly. This country was currently safeguarding three of them as national treasures.
“Ard Meteor. What exactly are thee planning to do with those? Am I safe to assume thee cannot wield the Armor of the Demon Lord?”
“Yes, most certainly not. That would be impossible,” I admitted.
It wasn’t a matter of me refusing to be the center of attention. I mean, even in old-world standards, these weapons were configured to be unusable to anyone other than extremely high-level mages. With my body now, my magical power would completely dry up if I handled one piece of weaponry, let alone three.
“I can’t use them as is, which is why I’ll transform them into armor more appropriate for my current abilities.”
““…Huh?””
Rosa looked at me with wide eyes—and even Weiss was shocked.
“Did I say something surprising? These may be called the Armor of the Demon Lord, but they’re no different from any other magical equipment, right? They’re weaponry that’s been imbued with special characteristics using an attribution spell, more or less. That also means it’s possible to rewrite them to create something usable.”
“Nay, nay, nay! In theory, perhaps, but no one has ever been able to accomplish that! Thy must know that rewriting a magical formula requires a perfect understanding of the inner workings of these attributes!”
“Plus, it wasn’t a random mage who worked on these weapons but the Demon Lord himself, which means their spells must be complex and bizarre… I’ve heard that many have gone mad attempting to understand them,” Weiss vocalized with skepticism.
Rosa was looking like she was totally convinced that I’d never be able to manage this feat as I proceeded to rewrite the techniques before their very eyes.
“Open. Door of Essence.” I recited two incantations, causing geometric patterns to fly out of the three pieces, creating six-merel magic circles before one another.
If you considered the fact that magic circles in this era were less than ten celti on average, the size of these went above and beyond the norm. I glanced over the four magical formulas contained within these magic circles, pointing my finger toward them—to begin rewriting them super smoothly.
““Wait, hold on, what?”” Rosa and Weiss were once again in harmony.
I heard snippets of their conversation as they yapped on behind me: “I was told it’d be impossible for anyone but the Demon Lord to decipher these techniques” and “I shall make thee my husband after all.”
I ignored all their comments, writing with utter indifference to lower the capacities of the weapons into a more appropriate level for my current self. As for the greaves, I changed their composition entirely. They were originally made to allow the user to move at high speed, but now I was rewriting the formula so they would let me fly ultrafast instead before continuing on with more mods.
“You really do defy all common sense,” Weiss noted with a wry smile. “That must be why she’s so taken by you,” he added before letting out a little sigh. “It might be hard to believe because she’s so different now, but until she met you, she used to lock herself away in the mansion.”
My work halted for a moment when I realized what he was saying.
“Back then, any stranger was a source of fear, because she knew out of instinct that no one could ever find out about our secret. She was certain they’d all persecute her one day… She’s changed thanks to you. But it was so terrible when she was little.”
Ireena’s secret wasn’t a big deal from my perspective. But it had been enough for her to regret being born and possessing this special quality. And I mean that in a bad way.
Ireena never let on that she was bearing this heavy burden, flashing her eternally bright smile whenever she was in my company.
…I wonder how much pain was lying just behind that smile, I thought, feeling as though my heart would burst open from my chest.
“After the two of you met, Ireena started venturing outside every day. And she even made the decision to attend the academy… To tell you the truth, I’d lived through similar days in my past. That’s why I fretted, worrying myself sick about whether she’d be able to live a full life. But now, I’m not concerned in the least. I know I already said this before, but…it’s all thanks to you, Ard,” he offered, just as I finished modifying these weapons.
Weiss could guess what was to come and gave me a hardened look. “If the demons succeed, there’ll be major casualties, and even more than that…Ireena will die. I refuse to accept that. She has so much going for her. I mean, her life’s just begun,” he continued with his fists balled up tightly.
He bowed his head. “I know I’m the so-called Heroic Baron or whatever, but I can’t even save my own daughter… Save her in place of her pathetic father. Please.”
Queen Rosa piped up before I could reply. “She’s an enigma. She swam straight into my heart. When I first met her, I was vexed by her timidity…but now she’s my one and only true friend. I request this of thee, too. Save Ireena,” she finished, bowing her head next to Weiss.
I smiled at the two and gave my answer. “Leave it to me. After all, I wish to save…my friend, who’s more precious than life itself.”
I wanted to see that smile again. I would save her no matter what.
…Even if our relationship ended as a result.
I equipped myself with the Armor of the Demon Lord before leaving the treasure vault and exiting the palace grounds.
“Ard!” I heard someone shout and saw Ginny approach me with her peach-colored hair swishing behind her.
I assumed she’d been trying to find me and dashing all around, as she came toward me with heaving, ragged breaths and sweat streaming out of her body like small waterfalls.
“You’re gonna…save Miss Ireena…right?”
“Yes, but things are going to get dangerous this time around… and I won’t let you accompany me,” I ordered.
Ginny hung her head as she assumed a cloudy expression, staying silent for a few moments until she finally managed to slowly string together her words.
“You helped me find my strength, Ard… You gave me confidence…and I thought I’d changed. But…I still couldn’t make any friends. I honestly gave up all hope and assumed I’d never be able to improve this one thing… I thought I was gonna die alone with no friends and continue to be lonely forever. But…” Ginny stopped for a moment as tears started to form in her eyes.
“But Miss Ireena…called me her friend…!” Big globs of tears cascaded down her beautiful face, which had become crumpled with sadness.
“She called…someone like me…her friend…! That’s why…!” she shouted, sobbing now. “You have to save Miss Ireena!”
She ducked her head with force, bowing in front of me. I swept my eyes from her to a clock tower in the distance and gave her the tiniest of smiles.
“Hmm. We may make dinnertime. Well then, Ginny. How about you cook some curry while you’re waiting for our return? I’m guessing Ireena is going to be famished.”
As I allowed magic to flow into the greaves of my armor, I invoked a spell, rising gently into the air. I prepared to soar into the sky when I suddenly remembered one last thing.
“Ah, right. You just said you didn’t have any friends. Don’t you realize that, along with Ireena, I consider you a friend, too?”
Ginny looked up at me with eyes as round as saucers.
My smile stretched a bit farther as I called out to her. “When Ireena comes back, let’s be silly and laugh again.”
“…Yeah!” she exclaimed with tears in her eyes, but I could tell these weren’t from sorrow. I flashed a grin upon seeing Ginny beam through her tears.
And then I raced toward the night sky stained in darkness, shooting upward with all my might.
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