Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 571

Ludwig was never the type to enjoy slaughter.

To be precise, he feared it.

Nevertheless, Ludwig fought because he believed it was something he had to do. That was the kind of person he was. If there was a clear and righteous goal, he did not hesitate to pursue it. Even if it was frightening or terrifying, he would still head down that path.

However, in the absence of a clear and righteous answer, Ludwig lost his way.

Thus far, Ludwig had relied on the help of his friends for such problems. Delphine Izadra, Lanian Sesor, Scarlett, and even Louis Ankton, along with other classmates from Class B, had made the moral judgments for him. Someone else made the decisions, and Ludwig followed that path.

Now, though, Ludwig was alone, and he had to face situations without clear answers.

For instance, if a starving boy stole bread from a starving girl, and if Ludwig took the bread back from the boy to return it to the girl, causing the boy to die of hunger, could he truly say the boy’s death was not his fault?

Ludwig could not determine an answer to that problem.

There were no concrete rules or theories to back up the vague notion of living virtuously. Therefore, Ludwig did not know whose side to take when it came to those whose lives were mired in despair. There had never been a reason to establish such a thing.

Ludwig’s sense of justice only told him to punish what was clearly evil. The Demon King, the root of all the events plaguing the world, was a monster who was trying to annihilate humanity. In the presence of a clear enemy, Ludwig’s unwavering will shone brightly.

In a place like this refugee settlement, though, filled with people struggling to survive and where chaos reigned, Ludwig felt completely lost.

Ludwig thought the battlefield was terrible.

—Just one piece! Please, just one more piece!

But the sight of people fighting over a single piece of bread was truly horrific.

He walked through the refugee settlement, filled with shanties, as part of a patrol of guards.

Ludwig had to get used to the pervasive poverty, stench, and empty looks of hunger that permeated the camp like grime.

Most people hid in the alleys of the shanties at the sight of the guards’ uniforms.

If they were innocent, there would be no reason to hide. Had they all committed crimes or were they planning to commit them?

Ludwig gritted his teeth as he watched the adults and children hiding in silence.

That couldn’t be... In this lawless refugee camp, the guards took extreme measures when it came to meting out punishment. The guards were butchers who beat and killed people without much justification, and held the power of life and death over most refugees.

Therefore, the people avoided the guards even if they had done nothing wrong. In fact, Ludwig once witnessed a guard, who had been casually conversing with him during the patrol, slap a young boy simply for bumping into him.

When Ludwig saw the boy, trembling and fleeing as he held his bloody cheek, he was stunned.

The guard, with an awkward smile, said he had gone easy on the kid because Ludwig had been there.

Ludwig did not know where to begin. When he realized that a slap was considered a light punishment, he was even more at a loss for words.

Everything he saw caused him distress.

That day, there were two guards accompanying Ludwig.

“Hmm...”

Sontaine, who was the senior guard, stopped in the middle of the street and looked.

One of the other guards pointed in a direction beyond the shanties.

“Sir Ludwig, I think we should head that way,” they said.

“Is there something over there...?” Ludwig asked.

“I smell meat cooking.”

“Now that you mention it, I smell it too. And there’s smoke... What’s going on over there?” Ludwig asked.

The guard shrugged at Ludwig’s lack of understanding.

“Why do you think there would be meat here?” the guard asked in return.

“...”

Ludwig wasn’t so oblivious that he missed the implication.

***

A short while later...

“Ugh... Ugh!”

The emaciated people, their eyes sunken, stared blankly at the ground as Ludwig retched.

The guards clicked their tongues at him.

“Sir, this is a common occurrence.”

The other two guards were neither surprised nor shocked.

They ate because they were hungry. It was natural.

For those driven to the brink, cannibalism sometimes became the only choice.

The guards’ indifferent attitude, and the eyes of those watching from afar, swallowing their saliva as they observed the spilled contents, made Ludwig grit his teeth.

This was beyond difficult. It was agonizing.

***

Cannibalism was punishable by death. No matter how hungry people got, such acts could not be forgiven.

If the act was not punished because it was an unavoidable choice, people would start to think they just needed to avoid getting caught, rather than avoiding such acts altogether.

If that happened, then cannibalism would become a normal part of the culture in the refugee settlement.

It was not because of the nature of the crime, nor because it was an unforgivable evil, that they were sentenced to death.

Some sins, if left unchecked, could destroy the entire refugee settlement.

Ludwig had to watch as those who had cooked what should not be cooked were killed by the guards’ spears and thrown into the flames.

He could not stop it, and he knew he shouldn’t.

When Ludwig returned to the capital, he realized that there were still things he could do, although on a smaller scale.

He knew the refugee settlement needed help. He believed he could find his purpose through carrying out these small tasks.

“...”

But what part of this was a small task?

Some might say that these tasks were better than risking one’s life on the battlefield.

For Ludwig, the battlefield was easier and more comfortable.

This horrific place, where everyone became each other’s enemy due to the single foe of hunger... This was the most challenging workplace for Ludwig.

For the first time in his life, Ludwig felt the urge to run away.

***

Cannibalism was a common occurrence in the refugee settlement.

Food was absolutely scarce, and securing it was not easy.

Ludwig realized how absurd it was that the Allied army was not starving.

He also understood why the ranks of regular soldiers were being continuously replenished. At the very least, they could avoid starvation until they were trampled to death by monsters.

The soldiers in the Serandia Allied camp would live comfortably during the winter.

Ludwig could not help but realize how important the “eating” part of eating to live was.

The problem was singular: hunger, but there were many other problems besides cannibalism that could arise because of it.

“What is this...?” Ludwig asked.

“I don’t know.”

Ludwig felt an indescribable disgust when he saw the object Sontaine had retrieved from a shanty, a small figure crudely assembled from bone fragments. He could not even tell what kind of bones they were.

He and the other guards had been drawn to the object by the sound of many people murmuring together in a corner of the shantytown. There, they found seven people praying to this bone fragment idol in a small shanty. Naturally, it resembled none of the holy symbols of the Great Gods.

Heresy was rampant.

While the Hero Cult, which believed in Ellen Artorius, could not be treated as heretical in this situation, other but strange yet unknown superstitions were emerging throughout the refugee settlement.

“Are you Demon God worshippers?” One of the guards asked the trembling heretics kneeling in front of them.

“Oh no, we believe in our soon-to-be-manifested savior, Esta...”

Heretics believing in unknown gods...

“Salvation will soon come...”

Ludwig felt utterly deflated.

“What are you going to do with them?” he asked.

Allowing those who resorted to cannibalism to escape mortal punishment might create a culture in which it was accepted, potentially destroying them all. Therefore, any cannibals executed on the spot.

What was the right way to deal with these unknown heretics, then?

“There’s no need to kill them all,” said one of the guards.

It seemed they were going to spare their lives, at least.

“This one seems to be a priest or something similar.”

Stab!

“Ugh... ugh...”

No, it meant they would kill just one.

“Do not believe in heresy,” said the guard before leaving.

There was no law dictating their deaths. It was the guard’s own personal judgment that determined the fate of these people.

—Cursed bastards...

—Divine punishment will come......

Curses were hurled at the backs of Ludwig and his party as they turned away. The other guards, accustomed to it, left without responding.

***

It was best not to think of them as people.

That was what Sontaine, the senior guard who decided the fate of the refugees, said.

“It’s better to think of them as insects.”

“Insects...? How can you call them such...”

‘Did I fight to protect insects and lose an arm? Did the Allied Forces lose so many lives, including those of my friends, just to protect mere insects? Is it right for you to make such judgments?’ Ludwig thought.

Ludwig felt like he was about to burst with indignation, but could not bring himself to speak his thoughts aloud.

But what could he do?

Everyone knew that none of this would be happening if their hunger was somehow sated. It was precisely because that problem couldn’t be solved that all of this was happening.

The answer was simple, but there was no path to reach it.

“If you don’t think that way, then you can’t do this kind of work,” Sontaine said, glancing around at the adults and children who were hiding.

“We see them as insects,” he added softly, “but to them, we’re the monsters.”

Monsters that killed insects—that was exactly what the guards were.

“Sir Ludwig, don’t approach them so easily. There are countless guards who have died that way.”

“...”

To the refugees, the guards were simply a group of monsters in human form.

The refugees had no reason to like the guards who killed them like dogs. There had been countless guards who, thinking they were different from the others, tried to act kindly and were stabbed to death.

Just as the guards executed refugees on the spot, the refugees had no qualms about killing the guards.

The guards treated the refugees harshly, leading the refugees to seek revenge, which in turn caused the guards to act even more harshly.

It was a self-propagating cycle of hatred.

Ludwig nodded gloomily as he considered Sontaine’s words.

***

Laws are maintained not because they are well-made. Laws can be maintained as long as there is power to support them, regardless of what those laws are.

The standards can be vague, and they don’t have to be fair.

Even if laws become so ambiguous that they can’t be called laws, it wouldn’t matter. Laws are not laws unless there is a powerful authority to enforce them, no matter how fair or great they are. The foundation of law is power, not perfection.

The refugee settlement was a stark illustration of that reality.

The guards were making arbitrary judgments based on their own interpretations, ignoring the prevailing imperial laws and executing people on the spot. The laws that should have protected them were not functioning, and the imperial family was turning a blind eye, deeming the actions of these guards a necessary evil.

Public authority was the foundation that supported the laws themselves, so those in public authority could ignore these laws. Laws were a byproduct of public authority, and it was difficult to apply these laws to those in positions of public authority.

The reason for the violence sanctioned by these public authorities was that it was the only way to maintain order. However, this situation, where the refugees were being constantly repressed by violence, was bound to reach a breaking point someday.

However, if the refugees’ anger and hatred exceed the threshold that could be suppressed by force, public authority will be overthrown.

Then, laws, having lost the power that was supporting them, will become meaningless, and chaos will ensue.

Hunger.

Cannibalism.

Heresy.

The guards’ killings and attacks on the guards...

Thud!

—Die, you devilish bastards!

Ludwig caught a fist-sized stone flying toward his face with his left hand as the boy who had thrown it disappeared into the alley, hurling words of hatred behind him.

Sontaine was momentarily surprised by Ludwig’s reflexes, but then calmly looked into the alley.

“Shall we give chase?”

“It’s fine. I was the one attacked, and I’m okay.”

—Even a cripple can be a guard now!

Ludwig bitterly smiled at the echoing shout that travelled out from the alley.

It wasn’t just the ones who attacked them directly—there were eyes watching from gaps in the shanties and within the alleyways. The murderous intent and hatred within those stares were impossible to ignore.

No matter how brutally the guards beat or killed people, they were never punished for giving hostile stares. It wasn’t that they couldn’t—but if they tried to wipe away every hateful gaze, they’d have to wipe out the entire refugee camp. And that, they couldn’t do.

Ludwig nodded, holding the stone that had flown at him.

If he got used to this work, he would have to kill refugees like the other guards.

Once the period that could be called probation ended, Ludwig would have to participate in these private judgments.

Could he do such a thing? Was it even permissible?

No matter how much he thought about it, Ludwig did not believe he could handle such work.

He wasn’t allowed to fight on the battlefield. Therefore, all he could do now was suppress the powerless in the name of maintaining order, sometimes even executing them on the spot.

Perhaps it would be better to return to the Temple and stay in the dormitory, shut away from the world. Or, he could find something else he could do, somewhere far from here.

Ludwig’s thoughts couldn’t help but flow in that direction. But leaving wouldn’t erase the tragedy of this place. Just because it was painful to endure didn’t mean it was right for him to turn a blind eye.

He didn’t know what the right thing was—but he knew that much.

***

For the guards, patrolling was literally about going around various places, identifying abnormalities in the streets, and taking action on the spot.

The patrol led by Sontaine, whom Ludwig was following, didn’t only engage in violent acts against refugees (including killings).

They gathered the bodies left in the alleys and identified the dead.

They stepped in to stop minor disputes from spiraling into violence.

They kept watch for thieves at food distribution sites.

They listened to the refugees to understand the overall situation in the area or to check for signs of organized crime.

Some tasks weren’t so grim, like helping a lost, crying child find their mother.

While many refugees feared and disliked the guards, not all of them did.

Ludwig smiled as he watched a child, holding their mother’s hand, wave enthusiastically at him as they left.

‘If only it were just these kinds of tasks, it wouldn’t be so hard...’

Executing refugees was an extreme situation, and not a frequent occurrence.

There were other minor tasks as well as necessary ones, and not all of them were harsh.

Ludwig walked the streets with Sontaine until the patrol was nearly over.

“That area is a restricted zone. We don’t need to patrol there,” Sontaine said.

“I noticed that there’s a line drawn across there,” said Ludwig, pointing out the visual indication that the area had been zoned off.

It seemed like an entire area had been closed off.

Ludwig quietly watched as gray smoke rose toward the sky from within the cordoned-off area. There was definitely a fire burning in there.

“Is there a reason to block it off?” Ludwig asked.

“There’s an epidemic going on.”

“An epidemic?”

“Yes. It’s common. With bodies left lying around, epidemics occur frequently.”

The mention of an epidemic sent a chill down Ludwig’s spine.

“Isn’t it dangerous? With so many people crowded together, if an epidemic spreads... I can’t even imagine its impact...”

Even though the area was quarantined, once the illness started spreading, it would cause enormous problems. It wouldn’t just be a few people dying; it would be thousands.

No, this epidemic wasn’t even the real issue.

“Shouldn’t the priests be here to help treat it...?”

Treating illness was supposed to be the role of the priests. Even if they couldn’t heal every wound, they should have stepped in for something as serious as an epidemic. Instead of priests, though, the area was merely turned into a quarantine zone.

Sontaine quietly looked up at the smoke rising from the restricted area.

That smoke was surely from burning bodies.

“The power to heal diseases falls under the authority of the God of Purity, Ouen.”

“Then the priests of Ouen should—”

“Many of them have died.”

“Sorry?”

“I’m sure you’re aware how the followers of Ouen and Alse are being treated now...”

“Ah...”

“Even though it wasn’t this bad before, as the situation worsens, the people’s dislike stops being confined only to the priests of Ouen and Alse, and spreads to all priests of the five Orders. They dislike them even more than us guards.”

Those who placed their faith in the two Great Gods who had bestowed holy relics upon the Demon King were increasingly being persecuted as the Gate Incident dragged on.

Although priests sometimes came to treat the refugees of illnesses and give them relief, the populace's hatred toward them had already crossed the line.

Those in need of help hated the ones who could provide it. Even though an epidemic was rampant, the priests of Ouen could not enter the vast refugee area without fearing for their lives. Ludwig learned the harsh truth that countless priests had actually died. This was why the epidemic was being left unchecked.

“Of course, if left alone, it will inevitably become a big problem. They must have requested help from the Order of the Holy Knights. Purification will be handled by priests who enter in disguise. They are still responding, even if their response may be rather delayed.”

“I see.”

To save people, they had to hide who they served.

Hatred toward the Demon King was universal, and that hatred bred more hatred toward others. It turned inward, to other parts of humanity, creating a reality where the epidemic was left to run its course.

Ludwig watched it all in silence.

“Let’s wrap up the patrol here. You can go home right away, Sir Ludwig. I’ll report to the guard captain.”

“Ah... Okay, understood. Thank you for your hard work,” Ludwig responded.

As Ludwig was about to leave, Sontaine called him softly. “Sir Ludwig... You don’t have to do this kind of work.”

Someone who had returned from a glorious task did not need to sully himself with such miserable and disgusting work.

Ludwig did not know how to respond.

***

Ellen and Heinrich decided to patrol the outskirts of the capital, splitting the area into two, north and south.

However, Ellen couldn’t even make it out of the capital.

Ellen hurried back to the Temple and gently placed me on the bed, her face pale.

She looked blankly at me.

Meow.

She had entered the refugee camp and made it about a third of the way to the northern boundary.

Although Ellen had her hood up and no one recognized her, everyone could see that she was holding a cat.

Honestly, I had somewhat expected it, but when children on the street followed her, calling out, “Hey, can I eat that? Can you give it to me? I’m hungry,” Ellen’s face went pale.

It would’ve been one thing if it were just the children. But when even the adults started licking their lips and edging closer, Ellen quickly turned around and hurried away.

Yes. I almost became cat soup.