Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 575

I had anticipated that meeting Vertus de Gradias would lead to a conversation, and knew that Vertus would likely comply with my demands. That led me to choose to take the risk of meeting Vertus directly.

The danger was not that something might happen to me or Vertus during the meeting. The real risk lay in the possibility of trouble later on if anyone found out about our meeting.

Once I met Vertus and we began our conversation, it was not difficult to get to the truth. However, I did not expect Vertus to willingly offer to show me exactly what they were doing.

Vertus ordered Sabioleen Tana to evacuate everyone from the research building for about three hours.

I, of course, would still change my appearance, but it was not advisable for anyone to see the emperor entering the laboratory with an unknown person.

After Sabioleen Tana left to relay the orders, Vertus and I sat in an empty dining hall, talking as we waited for the preparations to be made.

“How is Charlotte doing?” Vertus asked.

His expression was hard to read. Although they had once hated each other enough to want to kill one another, at some point, Vertus had begun to feel sorry for Charlotte.

Vertus had ordered Charlotte to be publicly executed, but his true intention was to call me to the capital, and I had taken Charlotte away.

Vertus had always wanted to save Charlotte.

“She’s handling her own affairs. She’s better than when she was in the imperial palace,” I replied.

“Thank you, Reinhart,” said Vertus quietly, with a sad and self-depreciating look.

He might have been thanking me for appearing and saving Charlotte, but it could have meant many other things as well.

The relationship between me and Vertus had changed significantly.

When Vertus did not yet know that I was the Demon King, he had a mindset that everyone else was inferior to him.

Naturally, he had a rather arrogant attitude towards me, and when he learned I was the Demon King, he acted roughly and questioned my intentions. At this moment, though, Vertus was, strictly speaking, in a position of humility.

It wasn’t because he recognized the power I possessed. It was guilt. Vertus carried a deep sense of guilt toward me, and because he was still dependent on me, he had no choice but to act with humility.

Hearing about Charlotte seemed to give Vertus some relief.

We did not exchange many more words.

Three years was a long time, but in some ways, it was not that long.

However, those who survived those three years had experienced too much.

Our formal discussion was concluded. Given the many uncertainties and obstacles ahead, we couldn’t afford to engage in a personal conversation.

“Is there anything more I need to know about the Gate Incident?” Vertus asked.

“Just keep doing what you’re doing,” I replied. I did not have much else to add.

The final gate was not Vertus’s responsibility, so that response was all I could offer.

***

Sabioleen Tana returned after the emperor’s orders had been fully executed.

Every single person had been evacuated from the research building, leaving not even an ant behind, and the guards monitoring the research building had also vacated their posts.

Disguising myself with Sarkegar’s ring and wearing a robe, I headed to the research building with Vertus.

It was impossible to know how long it would have taken to infiltrate the place or find a way to deceive the guards.

The security was so tight that not even an ant could get in without permission.

“It seems impossible to sneak in here,” I remarked.

Although everyone had evacuated as per Vertus’s orders, I had to pass through several different security gates before reaching the deep underground laboratory.

Even Sarkegar might not have been able to bypass this system.

“Your Dreadfiend might have found a way. While it was convenient for you to come to me directly, it probably wasn’t the only option,” Vertus said.

Vertus had kept Sarkegar detained for about two years, so he had to know about the Dreadfiends. Nonetheless, I found it surprising that the emperor believed Sarkegar might have been able to breach the security of this facility.

As we passed through the deactivated but still formidable entry system, Vertus spoke.

“Anna and Cristina proposed it first.”

“What?” I asked, not understanding what he meant.

Their “proposal” was undoubtedly about the project I was about to be granted access to.

“They asked me whether it would be acceptable to resort to something terrible if it meant bringing the Gate Incident to an end.”

“Anna and Cristina were the ones who first proposed it?”

“Yes. Louis joined them later.”

It was not Vertus but those two who had first proposed this project.

No one remained unchanged by the war, and it was laughable to compare the way things were to the original story.

Whether due to the horrific events they witnessed or something else, Anna and Cristina had come up with the idea of reanimating fallen soldiers as undead and proposed the plan to the emperor directly.

Just as Adelia had a hand in creating Titan—no, perhaps it was precisely because she had taken part in the Titan project that Anna and Cristina felt the need to step up as well.

Titan hadn’t existed in the original story. Its creation may have inspired Anna and Cristina, pushing them to find their own ways to contribute to the war.

“I thought about it. For a long time,” Vertus said as we descended into the underground laboratory. “For a very, very long time.”

Although the mages had proposed it, the ultimate authority lay with Vertus.

Going ahead with it meant desecrating the bodies of the fallen, those who had been too precious to die.

The way Vertus spoke conveyed how much he had agonized over the decision.

Ultimately, Vertus had given his permission, and he must have decided to use the heroes buried in the imperial mausoleum as well.

And so, I was shown what Vertus was creating for his army after Titan.

“This is...”

A massive vat, full of nutrient solution...

“Is that... an undead?”

“Yes.”

Inside was a human body, pristine and unblemished. It did not appear to be the corpse of someone who had died from fatal injuries.

It was the same for all the other vats in the laboratory.

It wasn’t difficult to deduce why the bodies of these fallen warriors, who must have died from fatal external injuries, were so clean and intact.

“Did you... Regenerate them?” I asked.

“Yes. We’re regenerating the flesh and muscles that have been lost or decayed.”

These bodies were not being kept in whatever state they were in after death, but were being restored to something close to their original state.

The underground laboratory was filled with these vats.

“The creation of homonculi is an application of the alchemy of manipulating life,” Vertus said.

“That’s right,” I replied.

“In other words, such alchemy can be seen as magic that creates something from nothing. That’s why the failure rate is high. Life isn’t something that can be easily created.”

Vertus quietly looked at the body of the unknown person floating in the vat, eyes closed.

“The alchemy of manipulating life is a branch of magic that explores the truth of life. However, what we are interested in is not the creation of pure homonculi; we need homunculi that can be weaponized. There’s no need to create something from nothing,” he said.

“You made something from something?” I asked.

“Yes.”

More precisely, it was breathing life back into something that had once been alive.

“It’s about making something that no longer functions as life function as life again. In mechanical terms... It’s like reactivating something that was once operational. It’s supposedly easier than creating a true homunculus.”

The alchemy of homunculi creation involved creating a life form that never existed, but in this case, it was about reconstructing a known life form.

If one understood the structure of the human body, then theoretically, one could recreate it—and in this case, the materials were already human.

By using the secrets of homunculus creation, they were able to restore what had vanished, decayed, or been damaged, such as organs, flesh, and muscle.

It was different from creating undead. Undead moved while remaining dead. But this... This was closer to giving life itself back to a corpse.

“It sounds like you’re saying you can resurrect the dead,” I said.

“That’s not it. We don’t intend to research that, nor is it possible. Just because you restore a dead body to its living appearance doesn’t mean it’s truly restored.”

Vertus, Tana, and I walked through the underground laboratory.

Bodies of people that I didn't know were being restored in the vats of nutrient solution.

They could be soldiers from the Allied Forces, those who died after the Gate Incident, or heroes from long ago.

“No matter how long the explanation, that’s what it boils down to. Using secrets of the creation of homonculi to regenerate the flesh of the dead, fusing artificial and original tissue with chimera-creation techniques, then animating it all with dark magic. What you get is something nearly identical to the living version—or perhaps even stronger. Calling them undead doesn’t quite fit.”

Vertus looked over at me. “We’re basically turning them into golems. That’s what we’re doing.”

In essence, they were making living golems. The project involved numerous magical disciplines, most of which were likely forbidden, but at its core, it was functionally like creating a golem infused with life.

They were using the corpses of once-living humans as raw material to craft these constructs, then sending them back into war. Moreover, they were even stronger than they had been in life.

“Can you bring back mages too?” I asked.

“We’re still in the testing phase, but it’s been found to be possible,” Vertus replied.

This was exactly the concern of the people of Edina, and it was already possible.

“We can even bring back priests.”

I stared in disbelief. “What?”

“You can resurrect priests as well, and bring them back to a state where they can wield Divine Power. I don’t know why they’re able to use it, but they can.”

I was left speechless by the absurdity of this world.

“Yeah... I knew the Five Great Gods weren’t normal.”

While these dead mages were not being reanimated as liches, they were still able to be brought back to wield magic again.

The art of creating chimeras, homunculi, and dark magic...

Through the combination of alchemy and dark magic, the Empire could recreate the bodies of the dead, give them access to the abilities they had while alive, and use them at will.

“Do they have consciousness?”

“No. It would be troublesome if they did. It’s fortunate they don’t.”

Ultimately, they were dolls that closely resembled living humans.

Strictly speaking, it didn’t seem appropriate to label them undead, but they were essentially the same as undead or golems.

“Of course, not all bodies can be brought back this way. If there is too much of the person missing, the regeneration process does not occur at all. Sometimes, even though the bodies regenerate, they still won't move no matter how much dark magic is used to control them.”

According to Vertus, the success rate was about seventy percent. To me, that seemed like an incredibly high figure.

“It seems like something very bad could happen if you fail to maintain control... Or am I worrying too much?” I said.

While Death Knights were powerful, they did not regain the full extent of their abilities. But this—this was different.

In this case, those who were brought back had their abilities fully restored.

Resurrecting a Swordmaster meant acquiring a real Swordmaster.

Resurrecting an archmage meant regaining the full power of an archmage.

If they failed to control them... Just imagining the consequences made my head spin.

Vertus flashed a bitter smile. “Reinhart, this is a war in which the fate of all living beings is on the line. We can’t avoid taking such risks, can we?”

It was a matter of survival.

Even the help of a cat was welcome—so why not take the devil’s hand, if that’s what it took?

If the devil’s hand could pull them back from the brink, the consequences could be dealt with later.

I understood Vertus’s reasoning.

The place felt like a lab built by madmen, overflowing with insanity.

Would these resurrected corpses be humanity’s salvation?

Or would they be the ones to drag humanity into an even deeper abyss?

“But it seems they’re not ready for deployment yet, especially if they’re all still in these vats,” I said.

I didn’t even know what to call them—but the fully formed ones, the ones ready to be sent to war, weren’t anywhere in sight. That suggested they weren’t ready for the battlefield yet.

Would the tide of battle change the moment they stepped out of these vats?

Vertus shook his head. “No. They’ve been deployed, and are already undergoing trials.”

“What?”

“You’ve seen them too,” Vertus said as he pointed upward, toward the ceiling. “Didn’t it occur to you that there were too many guards around the Temple?”

“Huh?”

“Especially around this facility. Weren’t there an unusually large number of guards?”

Come to think of it, security around the magic department had been extremely tight, with a sizable contingent of guards patrolling it.

“If there really are so many guards to spare, they would have been sent to places like the refugee camps. How many people are there in the Temple to warrant such a large force of guards?”

Most of the guards near the university were reanimated homunculi.

No one would recognize them, because all the guards wore helmets. No one ever saw their faces. And more importantly, no one ever questioned what kind of face lay beneath those helmets.

“Once we confirm that they can follow orders, we’ll conduct a second test by having them clear out monsters around the outskirts of the capital.”

Only then did I understand why Ellen and Heinrich couldn’t find any monsters near the capital.

The monster-clearing subjugation team on the outskirts of the capital was not made up of regular guards at all; they were reanimated corpses.

The outskirts of the capital were another testing ground, to see if these reanimated bodies could be properly operated.

No one else was allowed on these subjugation missions, but for entirely different reasons.

“After winter, they’ll all be deployed to the field.”

The deployment was already underway, and each new creation was made to complete the tests one by one.

It was obvious how much power they would exert and how helpful they would be.

“If this army alone can bring the Gate Incident to an end... It’s a ridiculous thing to say, but the Allied army might no longer be necessary.”

If the war could be fought with reanimated soldiers alone, and if their individual power was indeed greater than when they were alive, then the need for a traditional, large-scale military force would vanish.

The Gate Incident could be brought to an end more quickly, and large-scale casualties might be avoided altogether.

If doing what was forbidden could prevent greater sacrifices, then the temptation to dabble in it was undeniably strong. I had already yielded to that temptation once when creating Death Knights.

What Vertus faced was an even greater temptation—one that felt both necessary and rational.

However, the risks were unknown.

What would happen if this army of the returned went out of control? No one knew, but it was undeniable that they were of great help.

And if Vertus was to be believed, the project had nothing to do with the Black Order. Even if this posed a future risk to me, I had no choice but to observe for now.

No matter what inevitability might come later, I had to use it to my advantage, just as Vertus was doing.

After reaching this conclusion, I came to another realization.

Bodies restored to something close to their original form... I understood what that meant.

This was about restoring the dead to something close to their living form. It wasn’t a true resurrection, but a near-perfect imitation of life.

Cristina and Adelia had proposed this idea, and now, it had become a reality. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

I believed that the root of it all was the Titan project. That perhaps the sight of Adelia’s contribution had inspired the others—Cristina and Anna—to find their own way to help in the war effort.

I didn’t know the exact sequence of events, but I had a strong suspicion that they had to have attempted something else as well.

Cristina and Anna...

“Those two... Did they try to...”

I swallowed.

“Did they try to resurrect Ashir?”

The first of their classmates to die. B-4, Ashir...

Whether they had begun this project with the intention of resurrecting Ashir, or whether the idea came to them after the project was already underway, I would never know.

But one thing was certain: they had to have tried.

“...”

Vertus gave no answer.

However, his silence was enough. They had indeed tried to bring Ashur back.

Whether they had succeeded or failed in reconstructing Ashir’s body, I did not know.

And I had no desire to ask.