Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 537

Despite Heinrich’s refusal to join me, I had no intention of just letting him die. Thus, I kept a close eye on developments and had Sarkegar continue to report to me on the situation at the Kernstadt camp.

When the three Schwartz siblings left the camp, I sensed that something was about to happen, and took Harriet with me and tailed them. I initially thought Louise von Schwartz might harm Heinrich, but to my surprise, Louise ended up killing her other two siblings. Moreover, I learned the shocking truth that, while Heinrich was indeed a bastard, he was not the king’s bastard but Louise’s.

Charlotte had said that it was impossible for Louise von Schwartz to commit such a foolish act as assassinating Heinrich. The conspiracy to assassinate Heinrich had not involved all of them, but only the second and third siblings, and might even have been an independent action by either one of them.

In the original story, Louise von Schwartz had not been involved in the assassination plot at all. She lost her son because she failed to account for her siblings’ foolishness. Whether she knew the truth of the matter or not, she had been executed alongside them in the face of the emperor’s wrath.

Some of the events in the original story were passing events that went by quickly, containing hidden causes or details that were unknown to me. This was another such instance.

Charlotte’s suspicion that Heinrich might be an illegitimate child turned out to be true—but he was not the child of the king or queen. He was the son of the princess.

However, the expected outcome had changed as well. Something completely different had happened—Louise von Schwartz had not just stood by; she had killed her own siblings with her own hands. I didn’t know what had happened, what emotion had come over her to trigger this, but in the end, Heinrich survived.

Louise von Schwartz, whom I thought would be one of the main culprits behind Heinrich’s death, had actually stepped in to protect Heinrich.

Judging by her dazed state after killing her siblings, committing such an act had been a terrible shock.

In the original story, Louise had not chosen to side with either her siblings or Heinrich. Her passivity led to Heinrich’s death and her own. In this timeline, though, Louise had made a choice.

I didn’t know what excuse she, the Commander of the Kernstadt army, would make for the deaths of her two siblings. The deceased also had roles to play, and the issue of what their followers would do would surely arise, but it was better than having Louise or Heinrich die.

It turned out that doing nothing had indeed been the right course of action. This world had changed, and had resulted in a different outcome, but I couldn’t specifically pinpoint what specific change had led to this outcome.

Harriet and I left the abandoned warehouse area and hid in the nearby forest.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but... It’s going to be okay, right?” Harriet asked.

“Yes, I don’t think we need to worry about it anymore,” I replied, and Harriet nodded.

We knew who had been trying to kill Heinrich, and Louise had taken action.

This development would surely spark some commotion, but Heinrich’s life was no longer in danger.

If Louise von Schwartz had been the real culprit, things would have been more complicated, but fortunately, that wasn’t the case. Even so, we learned that the Schwartz family history was much more complicated than we realized.

In hindsight, the Scribe’s Advice to do nothing was a hint that the changes in the world preceding this event would manifest in a different ending, and all we had to do was watch.

“Yeah... The fact that Heinrich is still alive... That’s actually unbelievable...”

“What do you mean?” Harriet asked.

“If Heinrich was the king’s bastard, there would be no need to accept him into the royal family.”

The queen was not someone who would acknowledge a bastard. Charlotte speculated that it might have been due to the king of Kernstadt’s stubbornness. Even when royal family members died because of Heinrich, they only ended up exiling him to the Temple.

The fact that Heinrich was alive was in itself strange.

“So, Louise von Schwartz must have tried to save Heinrich somehow...”

“I see...”

I didn’t know how Louise von Schwartz had managed to keep this secret for so long. Judging by the reactions of the other royals, they knew he was a bastard but had always assumed he was the king’s, not Louise’s.

The only ones who knew the truth were likely the king, the queen, and Louise herself.

Louise probably made a deal, refusing to succeed the throne if Heinrich was killed, which prevented the Schwartz royal family from directly harming Heinrich.

She had to have pleaded with her parents, begging them not to kill him even after his unfortunate incident, even if it meant sending him to a place like the Temple instead of keeping him in Kernstadt. They could just forget about him once he was there. Perhaps she had made that deal as well.

The reason why a bastard who would have been better off dead was still alive was that he was the bastard of Louise von Schwartz, the most talented member in the history of the Schwartz royal family.

Just as Louise tried to use her position to save Heinrich, Heinrich’s very existence might have been a collar around Louise’s neck.

Perhaps the king of Kernstadt had kept Heinrich alive as a pawn to control the eldest princess. Perhaps that was why he survived.

If Heinrich died, who knew how the heir to the Kernstadt kingdom might have acted?

If Heinrich had been the king’s bastard, he would have been killed long ago. He was only alive because he had value, and he was necessary. To Louise, Heinrich was precious, and to the royal family, Heinrich was useful.

If I had realized this truth, I would have known that Louise von Schwartz could never be the culprit behind this attempted assassination, and would have been able to let this matter go.

Both versions of the Scribe’s Advice followed this same reasoning.

This outcome, predicted by the Scribe’s Advice, had potentially both good and bad consequences. The good thing was that the Kernstadt army got through Heinrich’s attempted assassination without significant losses. The bad thing was, of course, the possibility that other issues might arise from this incident, leading to more dire consequences later on.

“What do you think will happen now...?” asked Harriet.

“Good question.”

Bad things could happen at any time on the battlefield. Therefore, trying to predict them was meaningless.

***

Heinrich had always believed that his siblings would twist the meaning of his words, no matter what he said. But that applied to himself as well.

“You’ve come, youngest. Sit down.”

“Is there a reason for the siblings to gather? I called you over for a meal because it’s hard to see your face since you’re not part of our army.”

“When this situation is over, do you plan to return to Kernstadt?”

“That’s quite unfortunate.”

“You must be tired. Go on and get some rest.”

In hindsight, she was just a person of few words.

Putting too much meaning into those words and getting upset about them on his own was no different from what his other two siblings used to do.

She simply didn’t know. She didn’t know how to face someone she hadn’t seen in so long, someone over whom she had complex emotions. She couldn’t think of anything to say other than those simple words.

A usually taciturn person would only clam up even more in the face of complex emotions. Heinrich had merely misunderstood those few words, spoken from a complicated heart.

In the end, Louise couldn’t bear to see her other two siblings resort to the extreme. She had taken the extreme route instead and killed them with her own hands.

Louise and Heinrich were silent as they made their way slowly back to the garrison. Louise’s face was pale after having killed her siblings with her own hands, and Heinrich was just as overwhelmed, having witnessed it all and heard the shocking truth.

No conversation took place. It wasn’t a situation for conversation, and nothing had been sorted out yet.

A person with many things to say, and a person with many questions... Neither could speak.

“I’m sorry. For everything. All of it.”

The horses walked quietly.

“It’s all... my fault.”

That apology was all Louise could manage.

***

The two princes of Kernstadt were dead. They had not been publicly executed; they were killed by Louise von Schwartz’s independent action, without adhering to proper legal procedures.

Louise von Schwartz only told the military one thing: the two princes were missing.

The two princes had their own factions within the Kernstadt military, but their power base was not as extensive as Louise von Schwartz’s.

Louise’s statement that they were missing hinted that she was trying to protect the honor of the Schwartz family by disguising her brothers’ desertion. The commanders knew that there was something more behind it all, but Louise refused to offer any further explanation. As Emperor Vertus had said, this was a war for the greater good.

The disappearance or desertion, or death of the two princes was a significant problem, but the supreme commander, Louise von Schwartz, was alive and well.

The void left by the two princes could be filled by reorganizing the command structure. Ultimately, the two irreplaceable individuals had survived, and the two replaceable ones who had tried to kill their youngest sibling out of fear that they would lose their unstable positions had paid the price. The void left behind by the two princes, who had relatively weaker positions, could be filled.

Emperor Vertus knew what had happened, but he made no mention of the internal affairs of the Kernstadt army. Since the emperor remained silent, the staff in the general headquarters, who were aware that the circumstances around their disappearance was suspicious, also remained silent.

The Kernstadt army was unsettled by the sudden disappearance of the two princes, but it was not serious enough to result in division within the ranks. Even though two legs had been lost, the head was still firmly attached. There was no fight over who would be the next head.

The Allied Forces began their march from Senkerian to the next operational zone. The situation had been taken care of, but altered relationships could not be restored.

Once a secret is spoken, it cannot be taken back.

The threat of assassination was gone, and Heinrich also learned that he was the child of his eldest sister.

The relationship between the two of them hadn’t worsened. But Louise had killed her siblings to protect her child, and then had to lie about it.

They didn’t know what to say to each other. They didn’t know how to rebuild a relationship that had been wrong from the start, or what words to use to lay the foundation.

A person who had given birth but had never lived as a parent, and a person who had been born but never experienced having parents... Neither knew what words to use to rebuild this relationship which had been broken from the beginning.

Louise and Heinrich could not share any personal conversation. They only spoke when their duties required it. They had at least exchanged the usual pleasantries before, but now even that was gone.

They knew they couldn’t be strangers, but Heinrich felt as if they had become worse than strangers.

Heinrich was by Louise’s side as she rode silently at the head of the army. Suddenly, Louise tensed up as a voice pierced her mind.

‘I have a report for the commander of the Kernstadt army.’

“What is it?”

It was telepathy.

Just as Heinrich received telepathic messages from the general headquarters through Evia, commanders of each unit also received such messages.

While messengers and communication magic were still used, telepathy was convenient and immediate because it didn’t require magical tools. However, many high-ranking officials found the feeling of telepathy, which came without warning, quite unpleasant. Therefore, many had their aides accept these telepathic messages instead.

Of course, Louise von Schwartz also found telepathy quite unpleasant. It felt like her brain, her private domain, was being invaded. It felt bizarre to have something no one else could see laid bare to someone else. However, Louise wasn’t the type to pass the responsibility onto someone else.

‘The small warp gate in the next operational target, the small town of Lagirian, has already been destroyed. The Allied Forces will continue to advance to the next point, Setta, instead of the planned checkpoint.’

“Hmm... I see. Understood. Keep up the good work.”

‘Yes, Commander.’

Heinrich, hearing Louise’s muttering, realized she had received a telepathic message.

Louise looked over at Heinrich. “The next operational area has already been cleared. We’ll continue our advance instead of setting up camp at the planned checkpoint.”

“I see...”

They did not speak about anything personal. Every conversation was professional.

Heinrich watched as Louise informed her aides of the new orders to be relayed to the entire army. He watched as messengers rode between the marching troops to convey the operational changes.

Louise watched the endless line of marching soldiers. Not having to fight a battle to the death at the next operational area was a good thing, but the extended march was a different ordeal for these soldiers who had to walk the whole distance.

Louise pondered what was better and found it amusing. It was Emperor Vertus who had told her bluntly that if she didn’t kill her siblings, Heinrich would be killed. If those two had known that the youngest, Heinrich, was her bastard, would they have made such foolish choices?

‘They would have wanted to kill him even more,’ she thought.

Louise had never married. Therefore, if it became known that Heinrich was her legitimate child, Heinrich would become the next heir to the throne after Louise.

If Louise von Schwartz died in this war, the next heir would be the eldest son, German von Schwartz, not Louise, who officially had no children.

Perhaps they secretly wished for Louise to die in battle. Now that she knew how foolish and short-sighted her siblings were, that suspicion became a certainty.

If Louise von Schwartz died in the war, German would become the next heir to the Schwartz royal family. In that case, Alphonse might envy his brother, the new heir to the Schwartz royal family, and try to kill him to inherit the throne himself.

If Heinrich hadn’t been there, perhaps German would have tried to kill Louise first instead. Then Alphonse might have killed German and taken the throne of the Schwartz royal family himself.

Louise found her own thoughts laughable. Having killed her own siblings with her own hands, she was now trying to rationalize their deaths by using their foolishness as a form of justification.

There are choices, and there are results. Her siblings tried to kill her child, so she killed them. As a result, her child survived. All other considerations were meaningless.

However, nothing had been resolved between herself and her child. That wasn’t okay.

She wanted to talk to Heinrich about everything that had happened, why it had happened, what had been said, and how she had resisted the urge to run away from it all.

How many times his life had been placed on the scales of life and death.

How she had lived a life of forced endurance, swallowing her tears, keeping herself alive with the thought that he would be fine at the Temple.

She wanted to tell him all of that, but it felt like it would only be an excuse for not being there as a parent, and so Louise couldn’t speak.

When the war ended. When everything was settled, would they be able to talk? When the dark cloud of fate hanging over humanity was finally lifted, would they be able to talk about everything?

The battlefield was too desolate a place to talk about the sorrows and pains they had endured. Therefore, the only thing they could talk about was the war.

“Youngest...” Louise opened her mouth vaguely, but her tongue froze.

Was it right to address him as ‘youngest’? But she couldn’t call him her son. In this situation, with prying eyes and listening ears, she couldn’t mention anything about a bastard, just as the eldest sister couldn’t call her youngest sibling her son.

Heinrich gave her a knowing look. “Yes, sister?”

There were things they knew but couldn’t say. Heinrich understood.

Louise bit her lip gently, feeling a sense of helplessness. But this was about work, about the war. They couldn’t avoid talking about it because of personal matters.

“Would you say that you’re close to Emperor Vertus?”

At the mention of the emperor’s name, Heinrich paused. “To be honest... I don’t think we’re close. However, we did spend time in the same class at the Temple...”

“I see.”

If not for Emperor Vertus, she might have lost Heinrich due to her own inability to accurately calculate her siblings’ foolishness. The emperor not only knew that Heinrich was her bastard, but also the name of the man she once loved.

However, that wasn’t what Louise was thinking about.

“The general headquarters is hiding something,” she said.

The excessively quick and easy advance, the abnormal weather patterns, akin to a climate anomaly, and the preemptive suppression of operational areas... Only favorable things kept happening for the Allied Forces.

Given that the Allied Forces had Ellen Artorius, Sabioleen Tana, Shanapell, and the Imperial Mage Corps, such a quick advance might be achievable if they squeezed out their maximum capabilities, but Louise couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something suspicious behind it all.

“Do you know what they’re hiding?”

Heinrich looked silently ahead. “I don’t know,” he finally replied.

Just as Heinrich didn’t know his mother well, Louise didn’t know her son well either. However, she learned one thing.

“I see...”

Louise realized that her son wasn’t good at lying.

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