Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 479

Lucinil walked quietly around Port Mokna, under the night sky.

An Archdemon, a new world that had been created by Demon King Baalier, a place where humans and demons lived together...

Lucinil never thought such a thing was possible. The ancient hatred between demons and humans had seemed insurmountable. However, for all beings, survival was an absolute necessity.

The environmental limits of a nation of islands and the reality that the continent was overrun with monsters meant that both humans and demons had to choose between death or coexistence, which gave birth to a strange landscape in which humans and demons lived side by side.

Lucinil felt a sense of sadness that such a thing had only been possible when the world was close to destruction. Yet, the fact that such an eventuality had finally been reached evoked a strange ripple of emotions within her.

The circumstances that led to this landscape’s existence were complex, and Baalier, who could be considered the architect of this environment, had also been the catalyst behind the situation that birthed it. However, faced with that situation and the fact that it had all happened because of him, he had not collapsed nor succumbed, but had tried to achieve something beyond it. And in the end, he had accomplished something.

Because of that, Lucinil simultaneously felt sadness, pride, and admiration.

She was beyond the walls of the town, but because the monsters roaming around the area were regularly taken out, there were no monsters wandering about. However, even if there were monsters passing by, Lucinil was still a Vampire Lord.

Having lived for countless ages, and with the night belonging to her, there was no monster in this frontier that could threaten Lucinil. She walked through the outskirts of Port Mokna, observing the changed world.

In truth, it didn’t seem all that different. Not every place on the continent had been densely populated with humans, nor was the entire continent swarming with monsters.

The moonlit plains rose to greet her, caressed by a gentle breeze.

Even though the world was close to ruin, in her eyes, it seemed not much different than before. The silver-haired vampire walked quietly through this landscape.

Reinhart had disappeared, off searching for something. The princess, who was filling the void left by Reinhart, was striving to fulfill her role in any way she could.

The numerous relationships that the Demon King had formed had been turned into strange connections held together by guilt.

Lucinil quietly recalled the image of Baalier, who seemed unchanged yet had altered so much in the two years she had not seen him. It was as if he had developed an obsession with not showing any weakness.

The subtle charm that he once possessed had vanished. Though he still seemed like a complete being as the Demon King, his heart had to have been shattered with the knowledge that his existence had been the catalyst for this tragedy.

Yet, outwardly, there was no sign of such brokenness. He had become adept at hiding his inner thoughts completely. He had closed off his heart, unable to show even the smallest fragment, for if he started to reveal it, there would be no end.

It felt as though he anticipated an even more miserable fate that was awaiting him. Yet, despite it, he still acted as though there was something he needed to accomplish.

“Poor thing...” Lucinil murmured quietly to herself.

The Demon King had grown stronger, and had drawn a thick blackout curtain over his shattered heart. He was merely acting strong.

Though he hadn’t told anyone where he was headed, the Demon King had to have gone to find a way to overcome the miserable fate that awaited him.

He could run like a horse that did not tire. Lucinil had seen many such beings. She had seen those who ran like they would never tire and eventually achieved greatness. But she had seen even more who, at the end of such a run, grew exhausted and died.

Lucinil did not know if the path that the Demon King was running along led to exhaustion and death, or if it would lead to achievement. However, the Demon King was still running, gritting his teeth, without revealing his broken self to anyone.

Having suffered an excessively great failure, he was determined not to collapse out of sheer stubbornness. It wasn’t strength; it was more akin to an obsession.

What was the Demon King doing? In which world and place was that poor thing wandering? Having distanced himself from the affairs of Edina, the Demon King had headed off somewhere, as if he had been waiting for this opportunity all along.

As Lucinil walked through the moonlit plains, she suddenly stopped.

A soft, eerie wind was blowing from somewhere.

“...?”

Lucinil gazed at the moonlit hills. Lucinil was a Vampire Lord. Vampires were undead creatures. They were beings that should have been dead, yet were alive. Therefore, Lucinil, despite not having a soul, found it easier to sense spiritual beings than other living entities.

Lucinil had conducted more research on souls than any other being in the world. Thus, her ability to sense spiritual entities was exceptionally advanced compared to other vampires.

The strange unease she felt in the wind... Lucinil instinctively knew it was some kind of spiritual reaction. She took a deep breath and focused her mind.

—Sob, sob, sob...

—Ugh, sob...

Lucinil deciphered the strange cries and the despair woven into the wind. They were ghosts.

The ancient castle of Epiacs, home base of the Vampire Council, had its share of spirits. Though they were minor spirits that were unable to affect the living, they were ghosts that clung to the very land itself.

Lucinil walked silently over the hills of the moor, heading slowly toward the source of the wailing cries. These were different from the monsters of the Gate. This was a phenomenon native to this world. Yet, the eerie wailing, which made it seem as if the wind itself was sobbing, seemed to enchant Lucinil, drawing her in.

“What is this...?” Lucinil murmured.

What other beings could not feel, Lucinil could.

The voices of ghosts filled with despair and resentment echoed painfully around her. In the outskirts far from Port Mokna, between the hills, beneath a massive rock crevice that seemed artificially made, lay a large, deep pit. It was cleverly hidden away, impossible to find unless one deliberately searched for it.

Lucinil instinctively knew that the wailing was emanating from that artificially-created cave. At the bottom of the pit, Lucinil saw a swarm of dark things. It wasn’t moving.

—Ugh... Sob, sob...

—Sob, sob, sob...

She could sense countless ghosts, so many that they couldn’t leave this place, bound by a massive grudge.

Lucinil furrowed her brow and summoned a sphere of light, casting it into the pit. It was a pit so deep that its depth was immeasurable. Only then did Lucinil realize what the dark things at the bottom of the pit were.

“What... what is this...?”

They were all charred human corpses.

***

Riana had rescued more survivors than what had been reported to Edina. However, she had not sent a significant number of them to Edina. They had been turned into undocumented individuals, and not recorded in any official reports, because Riana had killed them. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com

Harriet was understandably shocked by this revelation, while Charlotte merely observed Riana calmly.

“I thought it was something that would be discovered eventually, but I didn’t expect you to notice, Charlotte, instead of Reinhart. And so soon after becoming regent as well,” Riana remarked.

What Harriet and Reinhart had been completely unaware of, Charlotte had deduced by merely glancing at a few documents. She had even inferred what had likely occurred. Despite her personal dislike for Charlotte, Riana couldn’t deny the competence of her abilities.

“Riana... What do you mean? Why... Why did you kill those people?” Harriet asked, her voice filled with disbelief.

Charlotte remained silent, but Harriet was overwhelmed by shock. Up to this point, without making any official reports, Riana had been killing survivors with her own hands.

If this were true, Riana was not just the person who had saved the most people in Edina, but was simultaneously also the one who had massacred the most number of innocents.

Riana looked over at Harriet, whose face had turned pale. “Reinhart has had many close calls with death, hasn’t he?”

“...”

Assassination attempts on the Demon King were not uncommon. He had nearly lost his life on many occasions, and had recently been sharing a bedroom with Harriet partly because of that.

“We can’t allow any more subversive elements into Edina.”

In reality, there were countless people in Edina who opposed the Demon King or hated him enough to want him dead. For the moment, they were being suppressed with force.

Additionally, without the Demon King around, it was uncertain how the demons, who were coexisting peacefully with humans for the moment, might react.

Although the Demon King had not intended for the Gate Incident to occur, he was still the catalyst that had triggered it.

Riana looked at Harriet intently. “When refugees are first informed about the situation in Edina, do you know what happens?”

“...”

“When these refugees hear about a society ruled by the Demon King and about living among demons, do you really think there wouldn’t be those among them who would rather die than live in such a place?”

These were not just people who raised simple objections. Each of them had lost something.

To go to a nation ruled by the Demon King, the catalyst for the very incident that had caused all of this... There were those who would rather choose death than live under such a ruler.

There were people who hated the Demon King enough to want him dead, but there were also those who hated him so much that they would rather die themselves.

Harriet trembled, her lips quivering with despair.

“Riana... but that doesn’t mean you have to... kill them—”

Riana’s eyes met Harriet’s. “If not that, then what? If you force the people who refuse to accept Edena to go there, Reinhart will be put in danger. And it’s not just Reinhart, is it? You’ve had many close calls too, Harriet. Even Olivia, whom I don’t particularly like, faces the same issue.

“I don’t want to fill Edina with extremist forces, but I can’t send them to Edina without first educating them about what it’s like either, since that could cause problems once they arrive.

“These people are already growing in number and likely already forming factions within Edina. I can’t just send more people over who might one day overthrow the leaders in Edina. And if I don’t send them, then what? Am I supposed to feed and house them here forever? I can’t do that either. I mean, should I just send them off to fend for themselves somewhere?” Riana said.

Expelling those they had saved back into the monster-infested lands outside the base, driving them back to a land where only death awaited... Exile and death was the only option.

“Yes, I did expel them like that in the past. If they wanted to die so badly, I didn’t want to get my hands dirty, so I told them to go away and die. I sent a significant number of survivors back out into the wilderness.

“I thought it was enough if they somehow survived. But do you know what happened then? It seems some of them actually survived. That led to a bigger problem. Rumors are spreading about a place of safety in the south. It’s probably being spread by the people I expelled from Mokna.

“What do you think will happen if this reaches the ears of the empire? If the empire learns about Port Mokna and discovers that we’ve established a base on a distant southern island, what do you think will happen? There will certainly be war.

“I made a mistake. I opposed Reinhart and made a huge mistake by sparing and exiling those who would rather die than live under the Demon King’s rule. I made the mistake of letting those who know about our land and our base leave with their lives.

“Since then, I’ve tried not to make that mistake again. That’s all there is to it.”

She had spared those who would rather die than go to Edina and exiled them. However, the problem wasn’t that the people who were expelled died; it was that they’d survived.

Rumors about Port Mokna had begun to spread. Although it was not known as the Demon King’s land, people were gradually learning about a paradise in the south.

The Demon King, a symbol of hatred, and his nation...

One day, humanity might attack Edina. If a growing number of people become aware of Edina, the empire might be forced into war with Edina, just as they had been pressured into executing the princess.

A stuttering empire might be compelled to go to war with the Dark Land to unite humanity and restore order. Therefore, Riana had begun to personally kill those who said they would rather choose death than live under the Demon King’s rule. Because if they lived, the whole of Edina might be put at risk.