Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 524 [Illustration]

Heinrich stood in silence, staring at the short letter that claimed his siblings were going to kill him. He wondered if it had been sent to the wrong person and checked the envelope again. “To Heinrich von Schwartz. From a friend.” It couldn’t have been a mistake.

“What is it? What’s it say to make you look like that?” Connor Lint asked, noticing Heinrich looking shellshocked.

Should he tell him? That he’d received a strange letter? Heinrich thought better about it, folded the letter, and tucked it away.

“Oh, it’s nothing. Just... nothing important.”

“... Really?”

If the letter was a malicious prank, there was no need to mention it.

If it was truly a warning from someone claiming to be a friend, sharing the contents could be dangerous.

“I should go. I need to rest.”

Heinrich gathered up his letters as a chill ran down his spine. He walked stiffly back to his tent.

After organizing the letters, he closed the entrance and sat down, staring intently at the letter from the mysterious sender.

It hadn’t been delivered by mistake. But he had no friends who would send such a letter.

Anyone could send him letters, so he couldn’t rule out the possibility that it was just a prank.

The letter contained nothing but a simple sentence: “Your siblings will kill you.”

It was hard to believe.

Believing it would be foolish.

He heard his sister’s voice. “When this situation is over, are you thinking of returning to Kernstadt?”

If his siblings had started seeing him as a competitor rather than just another sibling, then was the possibility that hard to believe?

The letter could be dismissed as a malicious joke, and he thought it should be. But it also presented Heinrich with a possibility he hadn’t considered.

He did not hold the naive belief that his siblings would welcome their talented youngest brother back into the family fold. If anything, they intended to use him and leverage his influence to strengthen their hold on the general headquarters. That was how he understood it.

But to go further than that and plot to kill him?

“That’s ridiculous...”

It couldn’t happen. Such a thing was impossible. No matter how strong his position became in this war, Heinrich did not believe that he would become the heir to Kernstadt, nor did he want to.

The current heir, Louise von Schwartz, was a strong Swordmaster who continually accumulated accomplishments. She wasn’t short of merit.

Both Heinrich and Louise were simply earning their merits. Moreover, the war was still going on, and so even if his brothers wanted to kill him, they wouldn’t attempt it while the fighting still raged on.

If the letter’s contents were true, then it would only happen after the war. It had to be that. Killing him now, just because he was a threat to the succession, would be an absurdly dangerous and foolish act, considering that he was one of the Allied Forces’ most significant assets.

He didn’t know much about politics or his siblings’ thoughts, but it was only logical. They would not make a foolish move that could bring about another crisis before this current crisis was over.

Even in this dire situation, unnecessary politics and power struggles intruded. Heinrich knew people could be foolish. Even within this army, which had set out to fulfill a great cause, he had seen and experienced foolish actions of those who could only see a step ahead, or planned too far ahead.

But still, these were his siblings. They wouldn’t try to kill him. They had no reason to.

“Yeah, there’s no way...”

Heinrich burned the letter, which only brought him unnecessary confusion.

He stared at the blackened ashes as they scattered in the wind, his expression still hard.

***

It was nighttime. Everyone was asleep, and Ellen, who was not involved in any operations that night, was also supposed to be asleep. Somehow, after spending a long time with the cat that seemed to like her, Ellen ended up bringing the cat back to her tent.

‘It’s a kitten, so maybe it’s better that I keep it with me? It was abandoned after all...’

She had intended to return it to its original place in the dining tent, but because of what Adelia had said, Ellen had hesitated for a long time before finally bringing the cat back with her.

The cat had struggled a little, but it had been unable to wriggle free of her embrace, and so it eventually ended up in Ellen’s tent. Her mind and heart, which had been clouded, seemed to find a bit of peace.

She removed her ceremonial armor, and the kitten watched quietly as the armor floated back onto its stand. Ellen found it strange that this small cat could restore some sense of normalcy to her consciousness, which had been foggy for so long. Perhaps it was because this small creature seemed so out of place in this setting. It felt as if she was under some unknown spell.

Regardless, Ellen intended to wash up. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel-com

She looked at the cat. She didn’t know where it had come from. It wasn’t particularly dirty, but it had probably rolled around in the dusty ground of the camp.

Ellen, who had never raised an animal before, thought it better that she wash the cat. It was a kitten, and dust wouldn’t be good for it.

Ellen picked up the cat, which was quietly sitting on the carpet.

Meow.

Holding the softly meowing cat, Ellen headed to the bathroom area. The cat began to meow loudly, as if realizing where it was being taken.

Meow! Meow!

“...?”

Meow!

The cat began to struggle in Ellen’s arms, almost as if it was protesting against being taken to the bathroom.

“You need to wash.”

Meow!

“Ah...”

As she entered the bathroom, the cat, in a desperate attempt to escape, wriggled out of Ellen’s arms and ran towards the sleeping area. Ellen watched as the cat, unable to hide itself properly, stuck its head into a corner of the tent, its body trembling.

Would it be a form of torment to force it to wash when it clearly didn’t want to? Ellen didn’t want to make the small animal suffer.

“...”

When she thought about it, she remembered hearing it said that cats disliked water. ‘It seems that saying is true,’ she thought as she unbuttoned her shirt.

***

After washing up, Ellen picked up the kitten, which was trembling in a corner as if something had scared it, and placed it on her lap. While she dried her hair with a towel, the cat sat on her lap quietly, still shivering.

Was it cold?

She remembered hearing that it had seemed to be in pain earlier on. When she looked closely, its movements seemed somewhat stiff, almost as if it was malfunctioning. It appeared sluggish, contrary to the agile image that cats had.

As she dried her hair, the cat slowly got up, jumped off Ellen’s lap, and started crying in front of the tent entrance.

Meow.

“...?”

It seemed like it was asking to be let out. Ellen’s tent, unlike others, had a functioning locking mechanism, so no one couldn’t enter or leave freely, and no small animals could either.

“Do you want to leave...?”

It felt a bit strange to talk to an animal, but Ellen asked anyway.

The little kitten remained silent.

She heard that this kitten had been abandoned by its mother. If so, where could it possibly go at this hour? Or did it know how to return to its mother? Without knowing what it was thinking, Ellen could only stare at the cat.

The black cat stared back at her. One was silent, and the other couldn’t speak.

They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. The black cat finally seemed to give up. It walked back towards Ellen and tried to jump onto Ellen’s makeshift bed.

Thud!

Meow!

However, the kitten seemed unaccustomed to jumping. It hit its head on the edge of Ellen’s rather low makeshift bed and fell to the ground.

“Are you okay...?”

Ellen carefully picked up the black cat, which had fallen pathetically onto the carpet, and placed it on the makeshift bed. A cat that couldn’t even jump...

Shiver.

The cat sat quietly next to Ellen, trembling. It almost seemed like it was embarrassed, and Ellen couldn’t help but chuckle.

Ellen was surprised to realize she had laughed. Could she really laugh at something like this? Had she not lost her ability to smile?

As she continued to dry her hair, Ellen gently scratched the cat on the back of its neck while it continued to tremble with embarrassment.

***

The cat seemed to have given up on going out and decided to stay in Ellen’s tent.

With her most recent operation now over, Ellen’s only task was to rest. Proper rest was important. No matter how strong Ellen was, the battlefield could claim a life in an instant. If she didn’t sleep well or rest properly, it would affect her condition the next day.

However, the tiredness and the sense of fading consciousness she had been experiencing lately were different in nature.

Her combat ability wasn’t diminishing. Even when her consciousness faded and her vision blurred, her body instinctively knew how to move, and her sword swung towards the enemy with optimal precision.

It was a strange sense of losing control, as if another entity was using her body when her consciousness faded. Even though the fatigue and pressure felt suffocating, her combat ability wasn’t diminishing; it was being heightened.

Lying on the makeshift bed with the lights off, Ellen quietly watched the black cat curled up in front of her face. The cat’s golden eyes, with their dilated pupils, stared back at her in the darkness.

They were very close. If it were a person, they would be close enough to see each other’s reflections in their eyes.

Ellen had never raised an animal. In her hometown of Rijaiera, a few households had dogs, but none had cats. In Rijaiera, animals were generally seen as prey.

She had never thought about wanting to raise one. She had seen cats before, but never this close. That night, though, Ellen had reached out to the cat she had seen for the first time that day, a cat that shouldn’t have been there.

The cat had licked her fingers as if it knew something.

It had been an unfamiliar sensation, yet it had also seemed to evoke a strange familiarity, as if it was awakening something in Ellen that she had been slowly losing.

Before she knew it, she had brought this unfamiliar cat to her tent, and now it was watching her from her bedside.

The cat continued to watch her in the darkness. Golden eyes. Eyes that seemed somehow familiar. Because of that, Ellen felt as if this small animal, which knew nothing, understood her. Ellen found herself amused by the thought.

“I think I understand why people keep animals.”

The cat stared silently back at her.

They did not keep them and raise them despite their inability to speak. Rather, it was because of this inability to speak that people kept them. You could project any emotion onto them and decide that they understood you. Even if they knew nothing, you could delude yourself into thinking they understood everything.

In that moment, staring into the kitten’s eyes, Ellen felt understood, even though she realized it was her own desire to be understood that was being projected onto it.

The black cat simply rubbed its head against Ellen’s face gently. Even though she thought it was a delusion to think it understood her, it acted as if it truly did.

Ellen gently petted the cat’s head, her hand resting on its back. It was strange that such a small creature could help to anchor her fading consciousness.

The fatigue, pressure, and despair that swirled about her seemed to lessen a little. Her mind grew clearer. However, she was still physically exhausted, and her consciousness was slowly drifting away as she felt herself being pulled into a deep sleep.

Thanks to this small creature, she had managed to cling to her own consciousness for the whole day. How long could this last, though? This small creature could only offer so much help. Eventually, she would disappear.

“I don’t want to... disappear...”

Ellen watched the cat as her vision blurred while she drifted off to sleep. As her consciousness faded, Ellen thought she saw tears in the small cat’s eyes.

Could cats cry? Ellen found the thought amusing.

When did tears become exclusive to humans? Humans could cry, and humans were ultimately animals. Tears belonged to all animals, not just humans. Of course cats could cry. But Ellen didn’t know why this cat was crying.

The ones who should have been crying were humans, but this cat was crying instead.

“Don’t... cry...” Ellen whispered, gently wiping the tears from the kitten’s eyes as her consciousness drifted away.

***

If one were to ask Ellen whether she was a heavy sleeper, she would say yes.

During her young and carefree days in her hometown, she always woke up late, whether she went to bed early or late. No one, not her mother, father, or brother ever scolded her for sleeping in.

The child who woke up late grew into a grown-up who woke up late.

But then, when she went to the Temple, Ellen realized she could adapt well to routines. She could wake up much earlier than what was stipulated in order to exercise in the morning.

She learned that she could reduce the amount of sleep she got whenever necessary, and if the situation required it, she could sleep less. She discovered this about herself once she had grown a little. At the Temple, she voluntarily slept less, and while with the army, she reduced her amount of sleep out of necessity.

This did not apply only to Ellen. Everyone had to start their day early. The days grew shorter, and Ellen had to wake up in the early morning hours while it was still early to go to the command center for mission briefings.

After preparing adequately, Ellen donned her armor.

Clank! Clank! Clank!

The armor stand activated, and the ceremonial armor Ellen usually wore attached itself to her body, the joints aligning automatically. The sword of the Moon God hung at her waist, and the cloak of the Sun God was draped over her shoulders.

Although there were no major missions lined up, Ellen still had to lead the vanguard, which constantly ensured that the path for the army’s advance remained clear and exterminated any appearing monsters.

She would head out to the field after being assigned her unit and getting her orders from the command center.

Camping outside was extremely dangerous, so missions were generally completed within the day, although sometimes they took several days.

Meow...

“... Was it noisy...?”

Ellen looked over at the black cat, which was yawning and rubbing its eyes. It had seemingly been awakened by the noise of her putting on her armor.

The black cat stared at Ellen, who was fully armored, with its round eyes.

Ellen, clad in her ornate full plate armor, crouched in front of the still-sleepy cat. She gently scratched the back of the cat’s neck with her finger.

“... I wonder if it feels unpleasant.”

Ellen withdrew her hand, afraid that the metal gauntlet covering her hand would hurt the cat.

“I have to go.”

Ellen had grown accustomed to talking to the small kitten after just one day. The cat seemed to understand her. It jumped off the bed and landed beside Ellen.

Thud!

“...”

It landed awkwardly and fell over, as if unaccustomed to jumping even from such a low height.

‘How could it be so clumsy?’ she wondered. However, the cat quickly got up, walked over to the entrance to the tent, and began to meow.

Ellen found it strange. Did it really understand her?

She unlocked the tent flap and opened it. There were already people bustling about outside, having started their morning early.

Ellen wasn’t the only one who woke up early. The black cat, which had left the tent with her, meowed beside her.

Meow.

The cat seemed to be heading off somewhere, just as Ellen was. Ellen felt as if she understood what the cat intended to do, just as she had the strange sense that the cat understood her words.

She had never experienced such a strange feeling before.

Were cats naturally carefree creatures? Ellen didn’t know much about such things. But it was clear the cat seemed to be heading somewhere else too, just as she was, despite its apparent inability to jump properly.

Whatever it was, she couldn’t force it to stay. She wasn’t confident she could take care of it properly, nor could she keep watching over it. Ellen looked down at the cat that was looking up at her.

“Come back again,” she said softly.

Meow.

The cat meowed back at her, almost as if it was giving her a reply, then cautiously began to walk away.

She had said that she was leaving, but the cat had left first.

She had told it to come back, but would it really return? She couldn’t know for sure.

Still, even if this strange experience of spending a night with a strange cat happened only once in her life, it wasn’t a bad thing. In fact, it had been quite an interesting experience. And if this black cat came back, that wouldn’t be a bad thing either.

With that thought, Ellen walked off on her own path.

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