Demon King of the Royal Class

Chapter 342

On the second day of the Council, after the meeting adjourned, Eleris and I were standing side by side in a secluded corridor while the sound of the howling wind echoed from outside.

I leaned against the wall, while Eleris stared ahead with a stern expression.

“Is this... the right thing to do?” she asked.

“We have to hope it is,” I replied.

“Your Highness, I have lived a long time, but I have never even heard of an artifact called Akasha. I am... afraid that if it exists, it might be dangerous, and if it doesn’t, I fear what Antirianus’s true intentions are.”

I understood Eleris’s fear.

Honestly, I was just as afraid.

There was a nagging fear that something worse than the Gate Incident might happen.

‘Would it be better to do nothing and just face the scheduled Gate Incident?’

Getting involved with an ancient, mysterious artifact like Akasha could lead to entirely unforeseen consequences.

The future was uncertain. That was obvious, but it was the first time I felt this kind of fear.

When I remained silent, Eleris gently took my hand.

“... I misspoke,” Eleris said.

I could feel how cold her hand was.

“Your Highness must be more afraid than anyone, yet here I am, being fearful...”

“...”

‘Did she sense the fear I was feeling without me saying anything?’

Eleris seemed to have confirmed through my demeanor that I had no intention of destroying the world.

Not everything would go well, but we had to believe it would.

If we weren’t going to do anything, we shouldn’t have started anything at all.

“Everything will be fine.”

I borrowed the power of Incantation to say that, but my voice echoed hollowly along the corridor.

***

After the meeting was reconvened, I asked Antirianus a few more questions. I wanted to know how he first came into contact with Cantus Magna.

In the end, his story lined up with what I had in mind. Antirianus had dabbled in numerous dark arts and forbidden spells in his quest for immortality.

“I hadn’t initially sought to summon the forbidden spell hunters, but if I could achieve immortality in the process, that wouldn’t be bad either.”

I knew of such individuals who engaged in bizarre acts in pursuit of immortality.

Perhaps that was why seeing Antirianus felt so strange.

It was like watching a villain from a fantasy story who dreamed of immortality not getting cut down by the hero, but actually achieving his dream.

I didn’t know the extent of the evil deeds committed by the Vampire Lords gathered in this place, but Antirianus was truly the epitome of an evil dark mage.

It was like seeing Qin Shi Huang a few hundred years after he achieved immortality.

‘That guy... Is it really okay to leave him be?’

“Anyway, the forbidden spell hunters found me, and I asked to become one of them. I was able to join them in exchange for all the forbidden spells I possessed.”

“Does Cantus Magna readily accept new members?”

“Not at all. The amount of forbidden spells I held was so vast, and they would have had to suffer significant losses to forcefully take them from me, so they accepted me as a member. They probably intended to purge me soon after.”

Antirianus didn’t make any excuses for himself. He did not say that he betrayed them because Cantus Magna was going to purge him anyway.

It seemed Antirianus wasn’t one to bother with rationalizations.

Antirianus and Cantus Magna had formed a temporary alliance out of mutual necessity, and in the end, Antirianus had lost out by giving up his forbidden spells without getting access to Akasha.

Of course, Cantus Magna also lost out by failing to eliminate Antirianus, thus exposing their secrets to the outside world.

“So, if you have your own unique spells or forbidden arts, contacting Cantus Magna might be easier than you think.”

The Vampire Council wasn’t that different from a secret society. The Black Order knew about the existence of Vampire Lords, but whether they knew about the five vampire families was uncertain.

It was likely the forbidden spells or magic unique to them had not yet been secured by Cantus Magna.

Therefore, if Cantus Magna became aware of the Council’s existence, or if the Vampire Lords revealed themselves, they would come to us and save us the trouble.

“It’s a matter that requires careful consideration,” Galarsh said, and I agreed.

“I don’t like it,” Lruien firmly refused. She wasn’t willing to take on that level of risk.

Honestly, I agreed with her as well.

“Exposing ourselves doesn’t seem like a wise move,” I said.

“Then what do you propose?” asked Antirianus.

I crossed my arms. “I’ve already made contact with the Black Order. I killed one of their members.”

It was only natural that everyone except Eleris was shocked by this revelation.

“However, he was just a low-level member. It wasn’t a big deal. The important thing is that I told them I could provide them information about Cantus Magna.”

It was likely that the Black Order didn’t know about Akasha.

The Black Order probably knew how to reach Cantus Magna. However, since they were enemies, they would prefer to gather information rather than engage in a full-scale war. They would want to strike from a position of advantage, and so, they needed information.

The Black Order had to have a good reason for not risking a direct confrontation with Cantus Magna.

‘Can I use this information to push the Black Order and Cantus Magna into open conflict? And is that the right thing to do?’

“For now, let’s proceed with negotiations with the Black Order and see what stance they take. There’s no need to take unnecessary risks.”

Everyone nodded.

We still needed time to deliberate. It was better to firm up our stance towards Cantus Magna only after confirming what information we could get from the Black Order.

If the Black Order provided reliable information, Cantus Magna might become irrelevant, although the existence of Akasha was unsettling.

For the moment, though, I had succeeded in obtaining information about Cantus Magna before the Black Order made contact again.

I had secured the cooperation of the Vampire Council, and obtained information about Cantus Magna.

There was nothing more to do with the Council until the matter of the Black Order was resolved.

“For now, my business here is concluded.”

I didn’t need their power just yet.

I hoped that such a situation wouldn’t arise.

***

My initial feeling had been that it would take a long time, but the meeting with the Vampire Council only took two days.

I was curious about Antirianus’s intentions. He was the one who had changed the dynamic of the meeting and provided crucial information, yet his intentions remained ambiguous.

Whether he was an enemy or an ally was still unclear, but for the moment, he was helpful.

That was how alliances often were. Perhaps the Revolutionary Forces would ally with us as well, even knowing that we might turn our swords on each other later.

The council meeting was concluded, and I would return to the capital the next day.

With nothing else to do, I wandered around Epiacs. The snow had stopped falling, and the piercing wind had died down.

Though humans maintained it, there were no frequent visitors to Epiacs, and the old castle was mostly empty throughout the year. I wandered aimlessly and entered a room.

I went to the Pantheon, where I had first seen Eleris’s statue and which made me realize that this place was connected to the vampires.

As I looked up at the seven statues, I suddenly felt a sense of incongruity.

If these were statues of the heads of the families, there should have been statues of Galarsh and Lruien, the orc and the elf. However, none of the statues had long ears, and not a single one depicted an orc.

Of course, the statues of Lucinil and Antirianus were there, in their proper form.

“Once humanity took notice of this place, we changed them.”

I turned at the voice behind me and saw Lruien standing there.

“We decided not to let the humans know what this place truly is. Seeing statues of an elf and an orc would arouse suspicion. They might have declared this an unholy place and destroyed it.”

The Council had decided to hand this place over to humans rather than to fight them. Therefore, they made changes to the parts of the castle that humans might find suspicious or unholy.

Indeed, while the statue in the position of Thursday did not have long ears, it still resembled Lruien.

Of course, the statue in Friday’s position, where Galarsh should have been, looked like an ordinary human.

Lruien stood in the center of the Pantheon, staring off into the distance.

“I’ve heard that I am the oldest among all the Vampire Lords.”

“... Heard?”

‘Why would she talk about herself as if she’d heard it from someone else?’

Sensing my confusion, Lruien smiled faintly.

“I erase my memories every two hundred years.”

“Ah.”

‘Is that one way to endure immortality?’

If she did erase her memories every two hundred years, then Lruien, the oldest being, would have the least knowledge of the past.

Some lived on because they had a reason to, while Lruien chose to erase her memories instead of death when she couldn’t endure the passage of time anymore.

“I must have wanted to forget, or perhaps I had to...”

Lruien crossed her arms, still looking into the distance. “I’m so curious to know what I knew before I erased my memories.”

There was a somewhat wistful look in her eyes.

“Why did the elves become extinct? What happened to Sunday and Monday? What were they before becoming vampires? Surely, I must have known everything.

“Why did I have to erase those memories? Or rather, did I even erase those memories myself?”

Lruien looked at me.

It wasn’t curiosity but a longing, a desire close to yearning.

She had erased her memories herself, but she couldn’t understand why she had to erase those memories, and so she longed for her own lost memories.

She must have known everything, and yet she had erased the reasons altogether.

Lruien quietly observed the statues of Sunday, Monday, and herself.

In a different sense from Antirianus, the Vampire Lords seemed to be complex beings, beyond good and evil.

Beings who had lived for a long time had their own ways of enduring the passage of time, and for Lruien, it was erasing her own memories.

“Does the head of Thursday have any desires?” I asked.

“Like Lucinil?”

‘Does Lruien have a desire like Lucinil, who wants a soul?’

“If I had to say... it would be to regain my true memories... all the memories I’ve forgotten until now,” Lruien said, then shook her head. “But if I were to regain all those memories, I would surely go mad.”

She wanted to regain her memories, but wasn’t confident she could handle them.

Lruien’s desire was ambiguous; she might not even choose to regain her memories if the opportunity arose.

“Yes. I don’t particularly have any desires, but I don’t want to die, either. So, I continue to defer death. After erasing all my memories, I live on with only the most important ones, including the fact that I am a Vampire Lord and that I lead a family.”

She continued to accumulate time, discarding all useless memories except those related to magic, power, and knowledge.

“Living on... huh,” she muttered.

It was as if she was compressing himself. Lruien seemed to ponder her last words, then tilted her head. Perhaps she thought the term “living on” didn’t suit an undead.

“Rather, it seems more accurate to say I’m dying very slowly.”

Deferring death indefinitely and dying slowly...

When vampires could no longer endure the weight of never ending time, they chose death. In Lruien’s view, they weren’t living, but dying slowly.

It made me wonder what the difference was between living and dying slowly.

The result was the same, but the nuance was profoundly different.

“When all your plans are complete and you truly rebuild the Dark Land, what do you plan to do next?” Lruien asked, looking at me.

I sensed a deep sense of futility from this ancient being. It felt like she was aware she was living a meaningless life, without any particular reason.

‘If I become the Demon King, then what next, and what after that? Is that what she’s trying to ask?’

Unfortunately, I had no intention of becoming a true Demon King. So, such questions were meaningless as I had never thought about them.

“I’ll probably be doing something.”

“...?”

“I mean, isn’t it true? I’ll be doing something. I won’t just do nothing.”

Even if everything came to pass, I wouldn’t just be doing nothing, so that was all I could say.

Lruien seemed momentarily stunned by my words, but then burst into laughter.

“Ha, haha... haha! Is that so? Yes. Yes. You’ll do... something.”

For some reason, Lruien found my words amusing, her ears perking up.

“Good. Perhaps it’s better to think that way.”

I didn’t know what part of my offhand response resonated with Lruien.

However, she said it was a long time since she’d laughed like that, then quietly walked down the corridor and disappeared.

Futility wasn’t the domain of those who have given up thinking.

It was because these being thought so deeply and continuously that they fell into futility.

Lruien’s steps seemed lighter, as if she had just realized this.

***

The next day...

I had no immediate business with the other Vampire Lords, and they had all agreed to cooperate.

Even though Akasha itself was a powerful source of strength, the Vampire Lords were willing to continue their own investigation of the method of opening a dimensional gate to another world, as I had initially mentioned.

“It’s a topic I’ve never considered before. It’s quite intriguing,” Antirianus said.

Setting aside the possibility of causing the collapse of the empire through cooperation with beings from another world, the old vampire seemed to like the idea of exploring the existence of another world itself.

These were individuals with nothing but time on their hands. Being mages, they seemed to find the topic simply fascinating.

“If the Demon King requires our assistance, the Council will be reconvened,” Lruien said.

Normally, the Council was rarely convened unless there was something special. However, since the Vampire Council had decided to form a connection with me, they seemed committed to fulfilling their responsibilities as allies.

I didn’t have much to offer, but they each had their own reasons for cooperating with me.

I watched as they began to leave Epiacs one by one via teleportation.

Eleris had already fled the capital. Until she found a new hiding place or a disguise, she wouldn’t be returning to the capital.

It seemed she would be staying at Epiacs as a liaison for the time being.

I thought I could meet her anytime via teleportation, but as the distance grew, I felt a bit... lonely.

It was nice to have her within reach whenever I needed her.

In the grand hall of the ancient castle of Epiacs, Eleris bowed her head to me.

“Take care, Your Highness.”

“Huh?”

‘What’s she talking about?’

“Aren’t you going to send me back? You expect me to go alone?”

“Oh.” Eleris tilted her head. “It seems Lucinil hasn’t told you yet.”

I was wondering what she meant when Lucinil was suddenly standing next to me.

“Archdemon, you’re coming with me,” Lucinil said to me.

“... Why?” I responded.

“I’ll be staying here for a while, so from now on, Lucinil will assist you whenever you need magic.”

‘Ah. So that’s how it is.’

Lucinil had no family to lead and was alone. Therefore, she was more free than the other Vampire Lords.

Eleris had made the decision to stay on for the time being while being the Council’s liaison and to manage Radia.

I wouldn’t be able to count on Eleris’s support for a while.

For the foreseeable future, whenever I needed to teleport somewhere or required powerful magical assistance, Lucinil would be the one to assist me.

“Lucinil is much more versatile than I am. She will be able to support you better than I can.”

What kind of debt did the head of Wednesday incur for her to be willing to offer this much assistance? It seemed Eleris trusted Lucinil quite a bit, even more than the other Vampire Lords.

“Support? Eleris, that makes it sound like I’m his subordinate,” Lucinil said.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Lucinil. Let’s say ‘protect’ instead.”

“Tch.”

“Protect? That makes it sound like I’m some brat who needs a nanny,” I said.

“... Aren’t you?”

“Tch.”

I had no choice but to admit she was right.

Having a powerful mage by my side was incredibly convenient. While Eleris, the great mage, was busy with other duties, she had arranged for another great mage to be by my side.

Lucinil might have looked like a naive little kid, but in reality, she was a homunculus vampire just pretending to be a child.

Lucinil signaled to me as she finished casting the spell. “Get ready. We’re leaving soon.”

Eleris looked at me with a worried expression. “Your Highness, please take care of yourself.”

“You too,” I replied. “Be careful.”

For some reason, it felt strange and bizarre. It was like I was parting ways with my parents.

Lucinil activated the Mass Teleportation spell.