Chapter 15 - For the Hero We Believed In
20 minutes ago.
A procession of carriages that had departed from Holy Kratia and traveled a long journey was now speeding up, approaching Logram.
'We'll be there soon.'
In the middle of that procession was the most magnificent carriage.
And inside it was none other than Neville von Ragnaric, the Crown Prince of Holy Kratia.
'Haa, how long must I keep traveling outside?'
Only 60 days after his coming-of-age ceremony, Neville was visiting all the nations belonging to the Holy State Alliance by order of his father, Lutan von Ragnaric.
'Though it's supposedly to tour on Father's behalf...'
Lutan, the Emperor, simply had no intention of moving himself.
Lutan did not wish to leave the safest Imperial Palace.
He had quickly designated his heir just to use him for such matters.
He had no intention of stepping down from the throne until his death.
Among his many princes, he became the Crown Prince simply because he listened best to the Emperor.
But he was not without complaints.
No, more than mere complaints, something burned in his chest.
'Hero, Clay.'
He admired him.
There was no grand reason.
It was when Lutan dispatched his princes to the holy nations that had advanced into demon territory.
Lutan had ordered them to monitor if they followed his commands well, but at the time, Neville hadn't even reached adulthood.
Suddenly, allied forces were pushed back by an overwhelming surge of demons, and his own life was in danger.
It was in that situation that the hero appeared.
He swept away the demons with his Holy Sword and saved him.
Squeeze!
And then the Holy State Alliance killed that Clay.
Specifically, it was his own father's doing.
Naturally, he clenched his fist.
'If only I had more power...'
He didn't know how long he would continue to be used as a pawn, sent to dangerous places in the Emperor's stead.
Although he wouldn't die easily, even having received multiple blessings as a Crown Prince, he could be abandoned by Lutan at any time.
All Lutan cared about was power.
He did not love his children.
Neigh!
The horse at the front of the carriage procession stopped.
Neville, realizing they had arrived at the banquet hall, lifted his head.
Click.
The carriage door opened, and a knight bowed his head.
"Your Highness, we have arrived."
Today, too, on behalf of Lutan, and on behalf of god, he would have to offer prayers and a congratulatory address for the banquet host.
Neville sighed and stepped out of the carriage.
Escorted by soldiers, he entered the rear of the banquet hall.
"...To our next guide who will grace today's banquet! We welcome His Highness, the Crown Prince, the legitimate son of His Holiness Kratia Lutan!"
Marquis Rabit, the lord of Logram, was a man who loved flattery.
He also wished for high-ranking individuals to grace his events.
The more they did, the greater his own merit would appear.
It was as Neville, well aware of this fact, walked with a displeased expression.
Rumble!
A sound like thunder echoed.
"What in the..."
KABOOOOM!
Something exploded, and the ground shook violently.
"Gah!"
Neville, losing his balance for a moment, fell to the ground, his face scratched.
"Ugh!"
But that was not his immediate concern.
The tremors had not stopped.
"Wh-what?! What kind of magic is here...!"
"It's an attack! Atta—Aargh!"
"The fire's spreading! Get the Lord and escape!"
Sounds from the banquet hall, which he had yet to enter, pierced his ears.
Through the situation of screams and shouts, all he could gather was that something that shouldn't have happened, had happened.
"Y-Your Highness!"
A soldier rushed towards him.
"Are you alright?"
He was alright.
Because,
Flash!
Whether in name or otherwise, he was an entity who had received an excessive number of blessings.
With a brief flash of light, the wound on his forehead disappeared.
It was the effect of Maberum, the blessing of recovery.
"I'm fine. More importantly, what in the world..."
"I don't know the exact situation! For now, let's get out of here! We need to leave this place!"
The soldier helped Neville to his feet.
Normally, he should have asked for permission before touching him, but this was no time to dwell on disrespect.
"Everyone, hurry!"
The soldier shouted to his comrades.
Thus, a dozen or so soldiers surrounded Neville and began to move.
Bang!
KABOOM!
A deep blue light flashed from the sky. Neville looked up as he ran.
'The demons should have been expelled...!'
Even if remnants remained, they were without a central figure.
It was questionable whether a force capable of such a powerful attack could exist.
Furthermore, this place was right in front of Lutan's border, wasn't it the innermost part of Marpein?
KABOOOOM!
Finally, something blue glowing in the sky fell near Neville.
"Aargh!"
Soldiers were caught in an explosive blast, flung in various directions.
Neville also nearly got caught, but this time Mazenke, the blessing of magic resistance, activated.
"Ugh!"
Thanks to it, the blast that reached him lost its power and dissipated like a gentle breeze.
'It's real magic!'
The dissipation of the blast meant it was magic that was being resisted by his blessing.
He opened his closed eyes and looked ahead.
A woman, enveloped in intense cold.
Seeing her blue hair sway in the lingering breeze, Neville couldn't help but widen his eyes.
"Lady Yuru...?"
She was Yuru, the Tower Master of the Blue Magic Tower.
"Why is Lady Yuru here..."
Neville murmured, then observed her appearance and fell silent.
She was gasping for breath.
Very roughly so.
Her body was a mess, indicating how many times she had overused her magic.
Her clothes were torn, and blood flowed from her mouth.
Seeing her blue eyes glow crazily with an intense color, Neville swallowed dryly.
'It's a magic overload phenomenon.'
Even she, whose amount of magic was unrivaled, would inevitably suffer a burden if she used large-scale magic multiple times at once.
The most common symptom was a feverish body.
She seemed to have used additional chilling magic to cool herself down.
Like adding poison to poison.
Neville couldn't help but swallow, realizing she had used magic continuously like that, even at such a cost.
'Surely not...'
From Marpein's southern border straight to this very spot.
If she had crushed all inspections and resistance to get here.
'Then, she would look like that, I suppose.'
He understood.
As soon as he understood, goosebumps erupted.
For what purpose had she, a member of the Hero's party who had condoned the Hero's death, come rushing here now, turning a nation belonging to the Holy State Alliance into a mess?
"Neville."
Yuru spoke with difficulty.
"No need for honorifics, I suppose."
She spoke as if she would hide nothing from him, who had witnessed this whole spectacle.
"It's certainly hard without a party. Doing things that aren't even my role, I've become completely ragged."
"...Lady Yuru?"
"You don't need to respect me either."
Her eyes shone coldly.
"I came here not to respect you, you see."
Step, step.
She slowly walked forward.
"Emperor Lutan has kept all high-ranking knights by his side since the hero's death, hasn't he? Just in case anyone loyal to the hero remained nearby. And he only assigns such low-level soldiers to his own children."
"What are you talking about, Lady Yuru?"
"The hero."
She moved her trembling lips.
"It's all because of the hero."
Because of the hero?
Neville looked bewildered.
"Is it because the Hero has passed away?"
"What?"
For a moment, Yuru, who had looked dumbfounded at Neville's words, then covered her face with her hand and began to laugh.
"Pa-passed away?"
It was a mad laugh.
Neville felt terror watching Yuru's shaking body.
But he had nowhere to retreat.
Yuru came closer and closer to him.
"Was the hero's death in a form glorious enough to be so exalted?"
"...That is."
"Neville, you truly are different."
The smile left Yuru's lips.
"You're definitely different from the current Emperor Lutan. But you won't be succeeding him. Lutan plans to live for a long time by implanting the heart of a long-lived species into himself."
"Pardon?"
"It's a common rumor, isn't it? Whether you believe it or not, Lutan is perfectly capable of doing something like that. Even if it's dark magic that goes against the god."
Neville, a chilling intuition striking him, quickly raised his hand.
"Lady Yuru! Please stop! Whatever you've planned, this isn't it!"
"Why? Am I not allowed to use dark magic? When Lutan is shamelessly using dark magic and trying to cover it up as if he isn't?!"
Yuru screamed, reaching out to Neville.
"Neville, please."
She spoke with a desperate expression.
"You believed in the hero, not the god, didn't you? So,"
It was the whisper of someone already maddened.
"Let me atone for my regrets."
♧
"...The beacon tower."
Barungenia.
Clay, having finished his conversation with Kardine and left the office, was ascending the tallest spire on the far left of the Demon King's Castle.
-The top floor of the left spire of this Demon King's Castle has an unextinguishable flame.
-The previous Demon King had magic orbs installed throughout the area through human collaborators. They are like windows that allow you to see the scenes those magic orbs illuminate.
-I don't know how far they are installed. That was handled by Rohare, one of the Four Heavenly Kings.
The place Kardine had told him about.
There was no specific place he immediately wanted to peek at, but his reason for ascending the spire was clear.
'Information is important.'
The fact that he, who should have been a corpse, had walked out of his tomb must have already been conveyed to Tia through Lilien.
If so, it was possible that something had happened.
Even if they didn't care about the corpse, they wouldn't fail to be wary of Beatrice, who appeared to have reanimated it.
They might even have sought help from the Holy State Alliance to prevent any possibility of her reassembling the Demon King's army.
So, even if he didn't know how far he could see, it would be good to take a look.
"Is this it?"
Reaching the top of the spire, an old door blocked his way.
'Unimpressive.'
For a window peeking into the outside world, its maintenance didn't look very good.
Creak.
Clay cautiously opened the door, which looked like it would fall off at any moment, and stepped inside.
"That's..."
In Clay's eyes, a ball of fire placed on a stand was visible.
Each time it flickered, something seemed to be glimpsed.
He approached it.
What he saw was small, but now clearer.
This fire truly seemed to be illuminating somewhere.
"I don't know where it is."
For now, he couldn't tell what it was illuminating.
It was showing a single tree in a desert.
As Kardine had instructed, he gently dipped his hand into the fire and flicked it sideways.
Then the fire illuminated a different place.
"Interesting."
Many unknown places appeared.
As he moved his hand to see what the fire illuminated, thinking that the previous Demon King also had some meticulous aspects, he thought.
"Huh?"
Suddenly, what caught his attention was the sight of a banquet hall in utter chaos.